TCPA Demand Letter - Arkansas

ARKANSAS TCPA DEMAND LETTER

Quick-Reference Summary

Sender Letterhead

[SENDER NAME OR LAW FIRM]
[Street Address]
[City, State ZIP]
Telephone: [____________]
Email: [____________]
[AR Bar No. / File No., if applicable]

Date and Recipient

Date: [__/__/____]

Via Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested, No. [____________]
And Via Email to: [____________]

[RECIPIENT NAME / REGISTERED AGENT]
[BUSINESS NAME]
[Street Address]
[City, State ZIP]

Subject Line / Re: Block

RE: DEMAND TO CEASE UNLAWFUL TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS AND TO SETTLE CLAIMS — Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227; Arkansas Consumer Telephone Privacy Act, Ark. Code §§ 4-99-401 et seq.; Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Ark. Code §§ 4-88-101 et seq.
Claimant: [CLAIMANT FULL NAME]
Claimant Telephone Number(s) Called: [____________]
Date Range of Violations: [__/__/____] through [__/__/____]
Number of Offending Calls/Texts/Faxes: [____]

I. Parties

Claimant: [CLAIMANT FULL NAME], an Arkansas resident residing at [ADDRESS], County of [____________], State of Arkansas, who is the subscriber and/or customary user of the telephone number(s) [____________]. Claimant ☐ registered the number(s) on the National Do-Not-Call Registry on [__/__/____] (Arkansas merged its state Do-Not-Call list with the federal Registry) / ☐ revoked any prior consent on [__/__/____].

Respondent: [BUSINESS NAME], a [STATE OF INCORPORATION] [entity type], whose principal place of business is at [ADDRESS] and whose registered agent is [AGENT NAME] at [AGENT ADDRESS]. Respondent ☐ placed the calls/texts directly / ☐ caused them to be placed by an agent, lead generator, or third-party dialer acting on its behalf, for which Respondent is vicariously liable.

II. The Offending Communications (Call Log)

Respondent and/or its agents placed the following calls, text messages, and/or facsimile transmissions to Claimant's telephone number(s) without prior express consent (or after consent was revoked / after a do-not-call request / while the number was on a Do-Not-Call registry):

Total documented violations: [____]

III. Legal Framework — Overlapping Federal and Arkansas Liability

A. Federal TCPA — 47 U.S.C. § 227

The federal TCPA is the primary vehicle for individual statutory-damages claims arising from unlawful calls, texts, and faxes:

• ATDS / artificial- or prerecorded-voice calls to cell phones — § 227(b)(1)(A): subject to the statute and rule's stated exceptions, prohibits calls using an ATDS or an artificial or prerecorded voice to a cellular telephone number without prior express consent. For advertising or telemarketing calls covered by 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(2), prior express written consent generally is required, subject to the rule's stated nonprofit and health-care exceptions. Under Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 141 S. Ct. 1163 (2021), equipment is an ATDS only if it has the capacity either to store a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator or to produce a telephone number using such a generator.
• Artificial or prerecorded calls to residential lines — § 227(b)(1)(B): the statute prohibits these calls without prior express consent unless the call is for an emergency purpose, concerns specified federal debt, or falls within an FCC exemption. Current 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(3) contains consent rules, numerical limits, and opt-out conditions that must be applied to the call type.
• National Do-Not-Call Registry — § 227(c) and 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c): restricts telephone solicitations to numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry; a caller invoking the safe-harbor standards must use a Registry version obtained no more than 31 days before the call (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(2)). A consumer private action under § 227(c)(5) requires more than one call within a 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity.
• Internal do-not-call / company-specific request — 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(d)(3): requires the caller to record the request when made and honor it within a reasonable time not exceeding ten business days.
• Unsolicited fax advertisements — § 227(b)(1)(C): generally prohibits sending unsolicited advertisements to a telephone facsimile machine unless the statutory established-business-relationship, number-acquisition, and notice conditions are satisfied; a compliant opt-out request ends the exception.

Damages: Section 227(b)(3) permits actual loss or $500 per violation, with a discretionary increase to no more than three times that amount for a willful or knowing violation. Section 227(c)(5) separately requires more than one call within a 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity and permits actual loss or up to $500 per qualifying violation, with the same discretionary trebling ceiling. Match each call, text, or fax to the specific claim before calculating damages.
Statute of limitations: generally 4 years after accrual — 28 U.S.C. § 1658(a).
Private right of action: expressly provided — § 227(b)(3), (c)(5).

B. Arkansas Consumer Telephone Privacy Act of 1999 — Ark. Code §§ 4-99-401 et seq.

Arkansas's TCPA counterpart is the Arkansas Consumer Telephone Privacy Act (ACTPA). It is a violation of the ACTPA to make or transmit a telephone solicitation to the number of any consumer included in the Do-Not-Call database (Arkansas merged its list with the federal Registry, so registration on the federal list invokes both ACTPA and TCPA protection). The ACTPA is silent on a private right of action; the Attorney General may prosecute and seek any remedy available under the ADTPA. Best-practice compliance requires scrubbing the federal and state registries at least every 31 days, not calling before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., honoring internal do-not-call requests, and not using an automated dialer to leave a recorded commercial message.

C. Arkansas Automated Telephone Solicitation — Ark. Code § 5-63-204

It is unlawful to use a telephone to offer goods or services for sale (or to convey information to solicit a sale) "when the use involves an automated system for the selection and dialing of telephone numbers and the playing of recorded messages when a message is completed to the called number." A violation is a Class D felony. The section authorizes the Attorney General, a prosecuting attorney, a law-enforcement officer, or a telephone company serving the call-origin area to seek injunctive relief; it does not expressly authorize a private consumer action. Its prevailing-party fee and costs sentence applies only if a civil action is validly filed pursuant to the section. Do not include those fees in Claimant's demand without separate current authority.

D. Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act — Ark. Code §§ 4-88-101 et seq.

ACTPA violations are enforced through the ADTPA, which also independently prohibits "[d]isplaying or causing to be displayed a fictitious or misleading name or telephone number on an Arkansas resident's telephone caller identification service" (Ark. Code § 4-88-107(a)(11)) and any "unconscionable, false, or deceptive act or practice in business, commerce, or trade" (§ 4-88-107(a)(10)). Under Ark. Code § 4-88-113(f), a private claimant must individually prove actual financial loss proximately caused by reliance on an unlawful practice and may receive discretionary reasonable attorney's fees; the Attorney General may seek civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation (§ 4-88-113(a)(3)). The ADTPA carries a 5-year statute of limitations (§ 4-88-115).

IV. Statement of Violations

Based on the call log in Section II, Respondent committed at least the following violations as to Claimant:

☐ Calls/texts to a cellular number using an ATDS without prior express consent — 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)
☐ Calls/texts to a cellular number using an artificial or prerecorded voice without consent — 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)
☐ Prerecorded calls to a residential line without consent — 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(B)
☐ Telemarketing without prior express written consent — 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(2)
☐ More than one call within 12 months by/on behalf of the same entity to a number on the National Do-Not-Call Registry — 47 U.S.C. § 227(c)(5); 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)
☐ Calls continued more than 10 business days after an internal do-not-call request — 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(d)(3)
☐ Unsolicited fax advertisement(s) — 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(C)
☐ Solicitation to a number on the Arkansas/federal Do-Not-Call database — Ark. Code §§ 4-99-401 et seq.
☐ Automated dialing + recorded sales message — Ark. Code § 5-63-204
☐ Fictitious or misleading caller-ID name/number — Ark. Code § 4-88-107(a)(11)
☐ Unconscionable/false/deceptive act or practice — Ark. Code § 4-88-107(a)(10)
☐ Other — [_________________________________]

V. Damages Calculation

VI. Demand

Pursuant to the authorities above, Claimant demands that Respondent, within [____] days (no later than [__/__/____]):

1. Immediately cease and desist all telephone calls, text messages, and facsimile transmissions to Claimant's number(s) and direct all further communications to the undersigned;
2. Place Claimant's number(s) on Respondent's internal do-not-call list and confirm the same in writing;
3. Preserve all evidence identified in Section VII below;
4. Tender settlement of Claimant's claims in the amount of $[__________] in full and final resolution; and
5. Identify every entity, lead generator, dialer vendor, and client on whose behalf the calls/texts were placed.

If Respondent contends it had Claimant's prior express (written) consent, Respondent must produce a copy of that consent, including the date, method, and signed writing, within the response period.

VII. Litigation Hold / Evidence Preservation Notice

Respondent is on formal notice of its duty to preserve all documents, electronically stored information (ESI), and tangible evidence relevant to the claims, and must immediately suspend any routine destruction or overwriting as applied to:

☐ Outbound and inbound call detail records (CDRs) and dialer logs for Claimant's number(s)
☐ Records identifying the dialing equipment used and its capacity (ATDS / automated-system analysis)
☐ Prerecorded/recorded-message audio files and text/SMS content and templates
☐ Consent records, lead-source data, opt-in records, and any signed consent writings
☐ Internal and National/Arkansas Do-Not-Call scrubbing records and policies (31-day scrub logs)
☐ Internal do-not-call lists and records of honoring opt-out requests
☐ Caller-ID configuration and any spoofing/misleading-name records (Ark. Code § 4-88-107(a)(11))
☐ Contracts, agency agreements, and indemnity terms with dialer vendors and lead generators
☐ Backup tapes, cloud-backed copies, audit logs, version histories, and metadata for the foregoing

Spoliation may result in sanctions and adverse-inference instructions.

VIII. Response Deadline and Method

Respondent's written response must be received no later than [__/__/____].

Silence, a boilerplate denial, or continued calling will be treated as a refusal to resolve this matter and may result in a civil action under the TCPA (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3), (c)(5)) and any independently available Arkansas private remedy, plus complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Arkansas Attorney General's Public Protection Department. Section 5-63-204 is not asserted here as a private consumer cause of action.

This letter is sent without prejudice to all of Claimant's rights and remedies, which are expressly reserved.

Signature Block

Respectfully submitted,

[________________________________]
[ATTORNEY NAME] (or Claimant pro se)
Arkansas Bar No. [__________] (if attorney)
[Firm Name]
[Street Address]
[City, AR ZIP]
Telephone: [____________]
Email: [____________]
Counsel for Claimant [CLAIMANT NAME] (if represented)

cc: ☐ Claimant
☐ File

Pre-Send Checklist

☐ Verified Respondent's legal name and registered agent via Arkansas Secretary of State (https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/corps/search_all.php)
☐ Confirmed each call/text/fax is documented with date, time, and calling number in the Section II log
☐ Confirmed whether Claimant's number was on the National (and merged Arkansas) Do-Not-Call Registry and the registration date
☐ Confirmed the federal claim is within the 4-year SOL (28 U.S.C. § 1658) and any ADTPA claim within the 5-year SOL (Ark. Code § 4-88-115)
☐ Assessed the ADTPA private-remedy elements: actual financial loss, reliance, and causation (2017 amendments)
☐ Confirmed claim is brought individually (private class actions barred — Ark. Code § 4-88-113(f)(1)(B))
☐ Evaluated whether § 5-63-204 automated-system + recorded-message conduct is present and preserved it for referral; did not claim a private consumer cause of action or fee award under that section
☐ Preserved Claimant-side evidence (screenshots, voicemails, carrier records)
☐ Removed all `` comments
☐ Sent via certified mail, return receipt requested, and retained delivery confirmation
☐ Reviewed by Arkansas-licensed counsel before transmission

Sources and References

• Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/227
• FCC TCPA implementing rules, 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-64/subpart-L/section-64.1200
• 28 U.S.C. § 1658 (4-year SOL): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/1658
• Arkansas Consumer Telephone Privacy Act, Ark. Code §§ 4-99-401 et seq.
• Arkansas Code § 5-63-204 official OCAR release: https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ar/transforms/ar/ocar/r78/gov.ar.code.title.05.html#t05c63s5-63-204
• Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Ark. Code §§ 4-88-101 et seq.: https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-4/subtitle-7/chapter-88/
• Arkansas Code § 4-88-107 (deceptive/unconscionable practices; caller-ID): https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-4/subtitle-7/chapter-88/subchapter-1/section-4-88-107/
• Arkansas Attorney General, Do Not Call/Telemarketing: https://arkansasag.gov/divisions/public-protection/technology/do-not-call-telemarketing/
• Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 141 S. Ct. 1163 (2021) (ATDS definition)