Maryland Stop the Spam Calls Act: what sales callers must do

Maryland’s Stop the Spam Calls Act bans sales calls between 8 PM and 8 AM in the called party’s time zone and caps them at 3 calls to the same person in 24 hours on the same subject. It requires honest caller ID and written consent for autodialed or recorded sales calls. A called party can recover up to US$500 a violation, tripled if willful.

The act came from Senate Bill 90 of 2023 (Chapter 413, with House Bill 37 as its twin) and took effect on 1 Jan 2024. It lives in the Commercial Law Article, sections 14-4501 to 14-4503. What follows is from the current statute text on the Maryland General Assembly site, as of November 2026.

Who it covers

The act borrows its definition of “telephone solicitation” from Public Utilities 8-205: an organized activity, program or campaign to communicate by phone with Maryland residents to sell, lease or rent goods or services, or to try to. Managing or supervising the people who make those calls counts too, so a sales manager is inside the definition, not just the rep.

Two details decide whether your calls are “to Maryland”:

• The called party is the regular user of the number. Section 14-4501 does not limit this to consumers. A buyer’s mobile counts.
• Area codes create a presumption. Under section 14-4503(b), a call to any Maryland area code is presumed to reach someone who lives or has a place of business in Maryland. The presumption can be rebutted, but your CRM’s “State” field is not where the analysis starts.

The rules next to the federal ones

Topic	Maryland (Commercial Law 14-4502)	Federal floor (47 CFR 64.1200)
Calling hours	No calls between 8 PM and 8 AM, called party’s time zone	No telephone solicitation before 8 AM or after 9 PM, called party’s local time
Frequency	At most 3 calls to the same called party in 24 hours, same subject, any numbers	No fixed daily cap
Autodialed or recorded sales calls	Prior express written consent	Consent rules depend on the call type and the equipment
Caller ID	Transmit the originating number, and the name when the carrier provides it; no deliberate mismatch to hide identity	Set by 47 CFR 64.1601(e); see the caller ID section below

Read the federal column in the eCFR text of 64.1200. Where the two differ, plan to the stricter one.

Myth: “We sell B2B, so the act doesn’t apply”

This is the misreading most worth fixing. Section 14-4502 opens with a list of exemptions, including “a business-to-business sale where the telephone solicitor has been lawfully operating continuously for at least 3 years under the same business name.”

The list begins with the words “This subsection does not apply to.” The subsection is (a), and the only obligation in (a) is the written-consent rule for autodialed and recorded calls. The other rules sit elsewhere:

• caller ID is in subsection (b);
• calling hours, the 3-call limit and the voice rule are in subsection (c).

So an established B2B seller may be outside the consent rule and still inside the hours, the call cap and the caller ID rules. The same goes for the other (a) exemptions, such as a single call made in response to a customer’s own inquiry. Check your own situation with counsel; this is the structure of the text, not a ruling on your calls.

Two more lines narrow the room further. Section 14-4503(d) says the act’s requirements cannot be waived by agreement, except through consent under 14-4502(a)(3) or a settlement. And a new company, under 3 years old or recently renamed, does not get the B2B exemption at all.

A worked example: one Maryland lead, one Tuesday

An example, with made-up but realistic numbers. A team in Austin (Central time) works an inbound demo request from a VP of Operations with a 410 number.

1. The window. Maryland is on Eastern time. 8 AM to 8 PM Eastern is 7 AM to 7 PM in Austin. The federal rule would allow a call until 8 PM Austin time; Maryland’s does not.
2. The count. The SDR calls at 9:15 Eastern and leaves no voicemail. The AE tries at 13:40 from a different local number. A second SDR covering a shared queue tries at 16:05. That is 3 calls on the same subject in 24 hours. A fourth attempt before 9:15 Eastern on Wednesday breaks the limit, “regardless of the telephone numbers used.”
3. The consent question. If the team uses an automated system to select or dial the number, it needs the lead’s prior express written consent, signed and naming the number, unless an exemption in subsection (a) applies. The demo form’s consent text matters here. See TCPA prior express written consent for the federal side.

The count is per called party, not per rep or per number, so it has to live in the system that dials, not in each rep’s memory.

Caller ID: what you may show

Subsection (b) requires the originating number, plus the caller’s name when the carrier makes it available. It bans deliberately displaying a different number to conceal the caller’s identity.

It also allows one substitution: you may show the seller’s name and the seller’s customer service number instead of the name and number used to place the call. A local number you hold and that rings back to your team is a different matter from a number you don’t hold. Our guide to telemarketing caller ID requirements covers the federal rules.

What a violation costs

Under section 14-4503, a violation is an unfair, abusive or deceptive trade practice under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. That brings two kinds of exposure:

• Private actions. A called party can sue to stop further violations and recover damages up to US$500 or actual damages, whichever is greater. If the court finds the violation willful or knowing, it can award up to 3 times that.
• State enforcement. The legislature’s fiscal note explains that a merchant who violates the Consumer Protection Act faces fines of up to US$10,000 for each violation and up to US$25,000 for each repetition.

At US$500 a call, a list of 2,000 Maryland numbers dialed one hour too late is not a rounding error.

A checklist before you call Maryland numbers

• Flag every number with a Maryland area code, not only contacts with a Maryland address.
• End the calling window at 8 PM in the contact’s time zone.
• Count attempts per contact across reps and numbers, and stop at 3 in any 24 hours.
• Confirm signed written consent before any automated selection or dialing, or any recorded message.
• Show a number you hold that calls back to you, with your business name registered.
• Log every attempt with its time and number so the count can be shown later.

Other states run similar rules. Compare Florida and Oklahoma, and see state telemarketing calling hours for the windows side by side.

How DialSavvy handles this

DialSavvy runs compliance checks before every call: calling hours in the contact’s own time zone and your do-not-call list. Each number DialSavvy issues is registered with your business name, and every call is logged with its time and caller ID. Per-state US rules, such as Maryland’s 8 PM close and 3-call limit, are coming; until then, set your team’s hours and attempt limits to the stricter state.

Calling into Maryland from another time zone? Book a demo and we’ll walk through the checks on your own list.