Yes — you can sue a company that keeps calling after you said stop. Federal law allows a personal lawsuit in an appropriate state court for an injunction and the greater of actual loss or $500 per violation. Cornell Legal Information Institute publishes the federal robocall statute with those remedies.
Revocation means withdrawing permission for further robocalls or robotexts. Since April 11, 2025, any reasonable stop request definitively revokes consent, according to the FCC in its revocation order. That includes saying stop on a call or replying STOP, QUIT, END, REVOKE, OPT OUT, CANCEL or UNSUBSCRIBE.
Table of Contents
- What counts as telling them to stop?
- What can a lawsuit get you?
- How does the Do-Not-Call list fit in?
- What should you save and where should you report?
What counts as telling them to stop?
A stop request does not need special wording. It only needs to be reasonable in context. Saying stop during a live call counts, as do common text replies such as STOP or OPT OUT.
The FCC says callers must honor a reasonable revocation within a reasonable time not to exceed 10 business days. After revocation, they may not make further consent-required robocalls unless an exemption applies. Save the exact date and wording so you can show when the clock started.
What can a lawsuit get you?
Each violation can bring the greater of your actual loss or $500. If the court finds the violation was willful or knowing, it may in its discretion increase the award up to three times. That means $1,500 for a $500 violation.
You can also ask for an injunction to stop further illegal calls. For example, three unwanted robocalls after revocation could mean $1,500, or up to $4,500 if willfulness is found. Your phone records and stop-request proof matter for counting violations.
How does the Do-Not-Call list fit in?
A registered residential subscriber has a separate Do-Not-Call claim after receiving more than one unsolicited sales call in 12 months. This path does not depend on proving you said stop on each call. Registration plus repeated sales calls is the trigger. That separate action appears in the same federal statute published by Cornell Legal Information Institute.
The FTC explains in its National Do Not Call Registry FAQs that the Registry targets sales calls from law-abiding companies. It does not stop overseas scammers who ignore the law. A lawsuit works best against an identifiable U.S. business.
What should you save and where should you report?
Good records decide close cases. Write down each call while details are fresh.
The complaint guide at USA.gov directs sales-call violations to DoNotCall.gov, scam losses to ReportFraud.ftc.gov, plus an FCC complaint, in the federal telemarketer and scam-call complaints guide. Those reports do not file your lawsuit, but they preserve your account and help enforcers spot patterns.
- Date, time, calling number, company name, and what was sold.
- Exact stop wording you used and how you sent it.
- Screenshots of STOP texts, call logs, and any reply.