Texas Senate Bill 140 is a telemarketing law signed by Governor Greg Abbott on June 20, 2025 and effective September 1, 2025 that brings text and multimedia marketing messages under the same rules as sales calls, lets Texas residents sue senders directly for $500 to $5,000 per unwanted message, and requires most businesses that text Texas numbers to register with the state and post a bond.1Texas Legislature Online. SB 140 Enrolled Bill Text Industry lawyers have called it the “Texas Mini-TCPA” because it mirrors — and in several places goes beyond — the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.2BCLP Law. How Will Texas’s Amendment to Its State Telemarketing Law Impact Litigation
What the Law Changed
Before SB 140, Texas telemarketing law covered voice calls but not text messages. A federal judge made that gap explicit in Powers v. One Technologies, LLC (N.D. Tex. 2022), ruling that Chapter 302 of the Business and Commerce Code did not reach unsolicited marketing texts because the legislature had added texts to Chapter 304’s definition of “call” but not to Chapter 302’s.3U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas. Powers v. One Technologies, LLC
SB 140 closed the gap. The amended definition of “telephone solicitation” in Chapter 302 now includes “a transmission of a text or graphic message or of an image,” so SMS, MMS, and image-based marketing fall under the same rules as sales calls.1Texas Legislature Online. SB 140 Enrolled Bill Text
The law also uses a broader definition of automated dialing technology than federal law. After the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, a system is a federal autodialer only if it both stores numbers and generates them randomly or sequentially. Texas SB 140 takes an either-or approach: a device qualifies as an automatic dial announcing device if it can store numbers or produce them with a random or sequential number generator and then play a voice message without a live operator. Dialers that escape federal regulation can still be covered under Texas law.2BCLP Law. How Will Texas’s Amendment to Its State Telemarketing Law Impact Litigation
What Consumers Can Recover
The most consequential change for consumers is a direct right to sue. SB 140 classifies violations of Chapters 304 and 305 of the Business and Commerce Code as false, misleading, or deceptive acts under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act (DTPA), opening a private cause of action.1Texas Legislature Online. SB 140 Enrolled Bill Text The old requirement that consumers notify the telemarketer and wait 120 days for state agency action before filing suit is gone.4Kelley Drye. Private Right of Action Exposure Increase: Texas Expands Damages for Telemarketing Violations
Statutory damages run from $500 to $1,500 per unlawful call or text through the DTPA pathway, and from $500 to $5,000 per violation under the Chapter 304 private right of action. Willful or intentional violations can trigger treble damages, mental anguish awards, and attorney’s fees. The Texas Attorney General can seek civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation and injunctive relief on top of that.5Blank Rome LLP. Texas SB 140 Changes Telemarketing Law There is no cap on total liability.
SB 140 also added an anti-limitation clause to Chapters 302, 304, and 305. The fact that a claimant has recovered in a prior private action “may not limit recovery in a future legal proceeding in any manner.”1Texas Legislature Online. SB 140 Enrolled Bill Text Settling one dispute does not shield a sender from future suits by the same person for similar violations, and consumers can stack Texas recoveries alongside federal TCPA claims.2BCLP Law. How Will Texas’s Amendment to Its State Telemarketing Law Impact Litigation
What Businesses Have to Do
Any business sending marketing texts to Texas residents must register with the Texas Secretary of State, pay a $200 annual filing fee, and post a $10,000 security bond. The requirement applies regardless of where the business itself is located. Each physical location that originates solicitations needs its own registration certificate, and companies have to file quarterly reports listing their salespersons. Messages themselves must identify the sender’s name, address, and the purpose of the communication.6Barnes & Thornburg LLP. Texas Expands SMS Marketing Rules With SB 140
Promotional texts are off-limits between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m., and all day after noon on Sundays.6Barnes & Thornburg LLP. Texas Expands SMS Marketing Rules With SB 140 Senders must scrub their contact lists against the Texas no-call list, which is updated quarterly; a number that has been on the list for 60 days or more is off-limits. Under Chapter 305, calling or texting a mobile number for sales purposes without prior consent is prohibited.7Kelley Drye. Texas Mini-TCPA Law FAQs for Marketing Texts
Several categories of senders are exempt from the registration and bonding scheme. The list includes businesses contacting only current or former customers while operating under the same name for at least two years, certain publicly traded companies and their subsidiaries, financial institutions, educational institutions, 501(c)(3) nonprofits, public utilities, insurance companies, and businesses selling food.6Barnes & Thornburg LLP. Texas Expands SMS Marketing Rules With SB 140 The statute does not define “customer,” so whether that status requires a prior purchase remains open.
Consent-Based Texting Is Carved Out of Registration
Days after SB 140 took effect, the E-Commerce Innovation Alliance, text marketing platform Postscript, and shoe company Flux Footwear sued in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (Case No. 1:25-cv-01401) seeking a preliminary injunction. They argued the registration and bonding rules unconstitutionally burdened consent-based text messaging — marketing texts sent only to consumers who had already opted in.8Ecommerce Innovation Alliance. EIA Members Exempt From SB 140
In its September 26, 2025 response, the Texas Attorney General’s office took the position that SB 140 was never meant to reach texts sent with the recipient’s prior consent, arguing those fall under an existing exemption in Chapter 304’s definition of “telephone call.”8Ecommerce Innovation Alliance. EIA Members Exempt From SB 140 The parties settled and dismissed the case without prejudice in November 2025. The Secretary of State agreed to update its website to confirm that businesses engaged in consent-based text messaging do not have to register, and to formally ask the Attorney General to issue a letter opinion reinforcing that reading.9Womble Bond Dickinson. Texas Settles Constitutional Challenge to Texas Mini-TCPA The Secretary of State has posted guidance confirming the exemption and giving instructions for withdrawing registration applications that were already filed.10Sidley Austin. Texas AG Settlement Clarifies No Registration Needed for Consent-Based Text Messaging
Two cautions. The settlement is not binding on courts or nonparties, so a private plaintiff could still argue in litigation that the law requires registration even for opt-in texts. And the exemption is only from the registration and bonding scheme. Every other piece of SB 140 — the DTPA damages, the no-call list scrub, the quiet hours, the consent requirement for mobile sales texts — still applies to consent-based senders in full.
Other Laws Called “SB 140”
“Senate Bill 140” is a common label and shows up in other jurisdictions on unrelated topics in the same year, including an Indiana law regulating pharmacy benefit managers, a federal wildfire prevention bill, and a Colorado prescription drug measure. None of those affect the Texas telemarketing rules described above.