Phoning leads and the Do Not Call Register: when your business can call

The short answer: a reply isn't a cold call

Phoning someone back after they've asked you for a quote is normal, expected and usually outside the Do Not Call rules altogether. Phoning a list of people who never asked to hear from you is telemarketing, and that comes with a register to check, consent to prove and fixed calling hours. Most of the risk sits in between: the enquiry from six months ago, the leads a supplier sold you, the past customer you'd like to offer something new, or the AI voice agent working through a spreadsheet.

Section 11 of the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 says a person "must not make, or cause to be made, a telemarketing call" to an Australian number on the register, unless the person called consented or another exception in the Act applies. The Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017 then sets calling hours, what the caller has to say and when they must hang up.

This guide covers phone calls from Australian businesses to their own enquiries and customers, or calls someone makes for them. Texts and emails fall under the Spam Act, which has its own rules. It's general information, not legal advice, so check anything unusual with your adviser.

Keep readingCheck the separate rules for follow-up texts and emails

When a follow-up call isn't telemarketing

The Do Not Call Register Regulations 2017 list kinds of voice call that aren't telemarketing calls at all. The one most service businesses rely on is the solicited call in section 6(7). A call isn't telemarketing when all four conditions listed at the end of this section are met.

The Regulations give examples that will feel familiar. A person fills in an online form asking about mortgage products and a broker phones to discuss them. Someone leaves their number at a health club's stall in a shopping centre and the club rings to follow up. A mechanic calls to explain the cost of repairs and ask whether to go ahead.

The same section covers calls whose primary purpose is an appointment reminder or reschedule, payment for something the customer ordered, a product recall or a fault. Its examples show that mentioning another product during one of those calls doesn't change its primary purpose. The purpose is judged by why you made the call, even if nobody answers.

The ACMA's statement of expectations on consent puts it in one line: calls "requested by a consumer and are made within a reasonable time after the request is made are generally not telemarketing calls."

• You're responding to the person's order or request for goods or services, or their inquiry or request for information about them.
• The primary purpose of the call is that inquiry, order or request.
• They haven't withdrawn it, for example by telling you they've chosen someone else.
• You're calling within a reasonable time after they asked.

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Where a follow-up stops being solicited

Each of those conditions can quietly stop being true. The Regulations don't define a reasonable time. A call the same day or week as a quote request is plainly a response to it. A call months later, after the job has gone elsewhere, is much harder to describe that way. For a sense of how the regulator thinks about time, the ACMA's statement treats telemarketing consent more than 3 months old as stale unless the person agreed to a longer period. That's about consent rather than solicited calls, but it's a useful signal that an old request doesn't last forever.

Purpose matters too. If someone asked about gutter cleaning and you ring mainly to sell them solar panels, the call's primary purpose isn't their inquiry any more.

Then there are calls that were never solicited: past customers you'd like to offer something new, numbers found on a website or in a directory, and leads bought from someone else. If the call offers or promotes goods or services, it's a telemarketing call. The Act says consent "may not be inferred from the mere fact that the number has been published", so a number on a business listing isn't permission to call it.

Automated calls count as well. The ACMA's statement says commercial calls made with an auto-dialler, or that use "pre-recorded or AI voices", are all telemarketing calls. If you're thinking of letting an AI voice agent ring old enquiries, the same register, consent and hours apply.

If it is telemarketing: consent and the register

A telemarketing call can go to a registered number when the account holder has consented. Consent can be express, or it can be reasonably inferred from the person's conduct and their business and other relationships. Express consent that doesn't say how long it lasts is treated as withdrawn 3 months after it was given. If someone says they don't want telemarketing calls from you, the register's guidance for industry says consent ends immediately and can no longer be inferred.

The ACMA recommends express consent. Its statement says to tell people what the consent is for, who will use it, how long it lasts and how to withdraw it, and not to use pre-ticked boxes or bundle several purposes into one tick. It also says not to infer consent "from one-off purchases", from an unclear relationship, or for calls that aren't relevant to the relationship you have. Keep a record of how you got consent, the terms that applied and the date and time.

Where you don't have consent, check numbers against the register first. Under section 11(3) of the Act, a call isn't a breach if you submitted the number in the 30 days before calling and the register didn't report it as registered. Numbers used mainly for business can't be registered, but calls to them still have to follow the industry standard.

Checking a few numbers needn't cost anything. The register's free subscription type A covers up to 500 numbers a year, and its Quick check can wash fewer than 10 numbers immediately. You'll need a washing account first, and larger lists need a paid subscription.

Calling hours and what to say

The industry standard applies to telemarketing calls to Australian numbers whether they're on the register or not. Unless the person has given express consent in advance to a call at that particular time, the hours listed at the end of this section are off limits. State and territory public holidays aren't on the national list, although state and territory laws can add their own restrictions.

As soon as the call starts, the caller has to give their first name, the business name of their employer, the name of the business they're calling for if that's different, and the purpose of the call. If asked, they must give contact details and who handles complaints. Caller ID has to be switched on, and the number shown must be one the person can ring back for at least 30 days to find out who called and why. If the person asks to end the call, or makes it clear they don't want to continue, the caller must hang up immediately.

These details are where real businesses come unstuck. In July 2026 the ACMA announced that Tabcorp had paid more than $2.7 million in penalties for telemarketing and spam breaches. Its findings included 351 calls to registered numbers without consent, 82 calls outside permitted hours and nearly 4,000 calls without properly identifying the caller or the purpose.

Solicited follow-ups aren't telemarketing calls, so the standard doesn't govern them. Keeping to the same hours and opening with who you are and why you're calling is still a sensible default. It's what the person expects anyway.

• Weekdays before 9am or after 8pm.
• Saturdays before 9am or after 5pm.
• Sundays, all day.
• National public holidays: New Year's Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, plus any day given in lieu.

Bought leads, agencies and call centres

Paying someone else to make the calls doesn't move the responsibility. The register's industry FAQs say both the telemarketer and "the business requiring the call to be made" must comply. Anyone arranging telemarketing through a third party must also put express provisions in the agreement requiring compliance with the Act.

In March 2025 the Federal Court imposed penalties totalling $1.5 million on digital marketing company V Marketing Australia, and $60,000 on its sole director, over more than a million calls to registered numbers. The court also declared that the solar business it first called for had contravened the Act by causing those calls, although that business wasn't ordered to pay a penalty. Justice Logan said contracting out telemarketing doesn't "contract out" the risk of significant penalties.

Bought leads need the same care. The ACMA's statement says businesses are responsible for consent "regardless of whether they outsource" it, and warns against assuming third parties keep consent records. Before phoning a supplied lead, find out what the person actually asked for and whether it named your business. A genuine quote request passed to you promptly may support a solicited call. A comparison form shared with several businesses, or a competition entry, is weaker ground: treat calls as telemarketing and ask the supplier for the consent wording, the businesses it named and the date and time it was given.

Keep readingCompare running your own campaign with buying leads

A one-page call policy for your team

Most small businesses don't need a compliance department, just a few written decisions everyone follows. Here's a made-up example to show the difference. A landscaping business in Ballarat gets 40 quote requests through its website in spring. Ringing each person back within a day about their quote is a solicited call. In March, the owner wants to ring all 40 to offer an autumn garden clean-up. That's a different purpose, months later, so these are telemarketing calls.

Anyone who didn't give express consent to marketing calls has to be washed against the register first. Even those who did may have lapsed: unless their consent said how long it lasts, it ended 3 months after they gave it. Every call also has to fall inside the permitted hours, with the caller saying who they are and why they're ringing. A cleaner approach is to ask at the quote stage whether the customer wants a call about seasonal work, explain how long that permission lasts, and record the answer.

Demandify's lead-generation service centres on Meta ads, landing pages and qualification for your business. If you'd like your enquiry journey to capture what each person asked for and when, bring your current process to an initial discussion. Use the points below as a starting policy and adapt them with your adviser.

• Record the date, time, source and exact request for every enquiry, with the form or call note.
• Call new enquiries back promptly, and keep that call about what they asked for.
• Give everyone a way to flag a number as do not call, and honour it straight away.
• Before calling past enquiries or customers about something new, check consent records and wash any numbers without consent against the register within 30 days of calling.
• Keep marketing calls between 9am and 8pm on weekdays and 9am and 5pm on Saturdays, never on Sundays or national public holidays.
• Show a caller ID number people can ring back, and open every call with your name, business and reason for calling.
• Put Do Not Call compliance clauses in any agreement with a call centre, lead supplier or AI calling tool, and ask to see consent records.

Keep readingAsk for marketing consent the right way on your enquiry form