Your company phone rings with another sales pitch, so you put the business number on the National Do Not Call Registry. It will not stop most of those calls. This short video explains why, and what the federal rules still require from callers and from the businesses that receive them. It is information, not legal advice.
Read the full guide: Does the Do Not Call Registry Apply to Business Calls?
The short answer
According to the FTC, most phone calls made to a business with the intent to solicit sales from that business are exempt from the Do Not Call provisions (FTC Q&A for telemarketers and sellers).
The exemption in 16 CFR 310.6 covers calls made to get the business itself to buy goods or services or to make a charitable contribution, subject to the exceptions the rule lists.
Where the exemption stops
The phone line is not the test. A call that reaches an employee at work and asks that person to buy something for personal use, or to give personally, is not treated as a business-to-business call, and it is not exempt from the Telemarketing Sales Rule (FTC, Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule).
Calls selling nondurable office or cleaning supplies to a business are not covered by the general business-call exemption. The same FTC guide says the National Do Not Call Registry provisions still do not apply to those calls, so "covered by the Telemarketing Sales Rule" and "covered by the Registry" are two different statements.
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Learn About Our ServicesExempt is not a license to mislead
The FTC's 2024 Telemarketing Sales Rule final rule prohibits material misrepresentations and false or misleading statements in business-to-business telemarketing calls (Federal Register 2024-07180). An exemption from the Registry provisions is not permission to misstate the price or any other material point.
The FTC's own Q&A also says that deciding whether an organization is exempt means looking at both FTC regulations and the regulations enforced by the FCC. A conclusion about the FTC Registry provisions alone does not settle the whole federal question.
This week, if your team makes the calls
Write down who each campaign asks to buy: the business itself, or a person reached at work. Keep the script truthful, and flag nondurable office or cleaning supplies as their own category instead of filing them under ordinary business calls.
This week, if your business receives the calls
Note who called, what they were selling, and whether the offer was for the company or for one person. Keep the exact wording of any statement that seemed false or misleading; precise notes make a complaint easier to evaluate.
This page is information, not legal advice. For your own campaign or complaint, check the rule text with a lawyer.