Does a web form count as consent for marketing calls and texts?
Only if the form carried a clear disclosure next to the submit action that the person agrees to automated marketing calls or texts from your named business at that number, with a statement that consent is not required to buy, and you kept the record of the submission.
A web form can be prior express written consent, and most compliant consent is collected that way, but only if the form did the work. The FCC rule at 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(f) requires a clear and conspicuous disclosure that the person agrees to receive marketing calls or texts, made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice, from the named seller, at the number provided, and that agreeing is not a condition of purchase. The submission must be attributable to the person and you must be able to produce it. A form that asked for a phone number and said nothing about automated marketing contact collected a phone number, not consent.
What a compliant form looks like
- The disclosure sits beside the submit button or an unticked checkbox, in readable type, not behind a link.
- It names your business, not "our partners". Consent to unnamed partners has often been found insufficient.
- It says the person agrees to calls and texts that may be made using automated technology or prerecorded messages.
- It says consent is not a condition of any purchase.
- The number field is the number the consent attaches to.
What fails
A "contact us" form with no disclosure. A disclosure that lives in a privacy policy the person never opened. Consent collected for one business and used by another. A form submitted by someone other than the subscriber of the number. A number later reassigned to a new person. Consent revoked by a STOP before the call. The full standard is set out in what counts as prior express written consent under the TCPA.
The record is the consent
In a dispute the question is not what your form says today but what it said when this person submitted it, and whether you can prove they did. Keep the rendered page, the timestamp, the IP and user agent, and any lead-certification record. A vendor that collected the form for you must hand that over; see we bought a list the vendor said was clean.
People also ask
Where does the disclosure have to be?
Where the person sees it when they agree: next to the checkbox or submit button, not in a terms page linked from the footer or in a privacy policy.
Does a pre-ticked box count?
It is weak. The signature must be the person’s act. An unticked box the person ticks, or a submit button under a clear disclosure, is far safer.
What records should I keep from the form?
The page as rendered at the time, the disclosure text, the number entered, the timestamp, IP address and user agent, and any lead-certification record. Keep them four years after the last call.