Compliance checks

Before a Dialer campaign dials anyone, Retell screens each contact with the compliance checks you choose: your internal DNC list, the federal and state do-not-call registries, known TCPA litigators, reassigned numbers, and landline or VoIP line types. A contact that fails a check is never dialed in that campaign, and the campaign shows which check it failed. You choose the checks for each campaign, and they lock at launch.

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What each check catches

In the campaign’s Contacts tab, choose your contacts and click Continue. The next screen, Contacts - screening, lists the checks. When you create a campaign in the dashboard, only Retell Contacts DNC is on. A campaign created through the API has no checks unless you set them. RND Screening checks the Reassigned Numbers Database for numbers reassigned within the Consent lookback period, counted back from the day the check runs. A number reassigned before that period isn’t caught, so set the period to reach back to when you collected consent. It takes a whole number of days, 0 or greater. The line-type checks skip only landline and VoIP numbers. You can’t filter out mobile numbers. If the screening provider can’t tell whether a number matches a check, for example a line type it can’t identify, the number passes that check. A check is a screen, not a guarantee. Screening is billed per number checked. The Cost estimates panel on the Contacts - screening screen shows the estimate. Retell Contacts DNC alone is free, and Auto-enroll contacts are billed as they’re checked.

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Set up your FTC registration

Federal DNC and state DNC run under your own FTC National Do Not Call Registry account, so Retell needs your FTC Org ID and Subscription Account Number (SAN). A campaign with either check on can’t launch until the FTC verifies them. Until then, launch shows “This campaign can’t launch until the FTC verifies your SAN.” If the FTC rejects the values, the SAN field shows the FTC’s message or “The FTC could not verify this number. Check it and submit again.” Correct the values and click Confirm again. If a verified SAN expires, the field shows the expiry date. Renew your subscription with the FTC. Retell checks an expired SAN again when it’s used, so the field returns to Verified once the FTC renews it. Until then, campaigns with federal or state DNC on can’t launch. If your renewal comes with a new SAN, enter it and click Confirm.

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Area codes your SAN covers

Your SAN covers only the area codes you subscribed to with the FTC. Retell can’t check a contact in any other area code against the registries, so that contact fails as Area code not covered by your SAN. The dashboard doesn’t show which area codes your SAN covers, so confirm your subscription with the FTC before you launch.

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Change your SAN

To replace a verified SAN, hover over the SAN field, click the X, and click Change SAN. The dialog warns: “Changing your SAN turns off federal and state DNC checks until the FTC verifies the new value. Until then, running campaigns that use these checks fail their new contacts.” In an Auto-enroll campaign, that’s every contact that enrolls before the new SAN is verified. A failed contact is never checked again, so change the SAN when no running campaign with these checks is enrolling contacts.

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Who can edit the registration

Anyone who can edit phone numbers, such as Admins and Developers, can edit the FTC registration (see access control). Members see it read-only, with “Ask someone who can edit phone numbers to add your FTC registration.”

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When checks run

• At launch. Standard and Auto-enroll campaigns both check every contact when you launch. A scheduled campaign checks its contacts when you schedule it, not at its start time.
• When a contact joins an Auto-enroll campaign. Retell checks a contact that enrolls after launch, usually within about 5 minutes.
• Before each call or SMS attempt, for internal DNC only. If a contact is marked do-not-call after it passed, Retell stops it before the next attempt. Its stage becomes Failed with the reason Marked Do Not Call in Retell. A call already queued, or the second dial of a double dial, isn’t rechecked. The other checks don’t run again, so federal and state DNC results stay as they were at launch for the life of the campaign.

While checks run, the contact’s stage is Validating. Retell never dials a contact before its checks finish. If the screening provider is unavailable, the contact stays Validating and Retell retries it about every 10 minutes. After 24 hours from enrollment, it fails as Validation timed out. A contact that fails a check gets the stage Enroll failed. On the campaign’s Contacts tab, hover over the stage or open the contact to see the reason. The failure is final: Retell never retries the contact in that campaign. The contact stays in your workspace Contacts. Each failed contact shows one reason, the first match in this order: internal DNC, federal DNC, area code not covered by your SAN, state DNC, landline, VoIP, TCPA, RND. To use different checks after launch, duplicate the campaign and launch the copy.

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Which numbers are checked?

Retell Contacts DNC applies to every number. As of October 2026, the other checks run only on valid US and Canadian numbers (+1). Other numbers, including numbers in other +1 regions such as Puerto Rico and Jamaica, skip those checks and enroll as if they passed. Federal DNC and State DNC check US registries only. Retell doesn’t check Canada’s National Do Not Call List (DNCL), so screen Canadian contacts against it yourself before you add them to a campaign.

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Do-not-call requests during a campaign

Compliance checks screen contacts before the first dial. During the campaign, a contact can still ask you to stop:

• On a call, the agent’s Do-not-contact Handling confirms the request and ends the call. With Retell Contacts DNC on, Retell turns on Do-not-contact Handling for the campaign’s calls, even if the agent has it off.
• By SMS, the contact replies to a campaign message with an opt-out keyword such as STOP.

Either way, Retell marks the workspace contact do-not-call, and the contact gets the Do Not Call outcome, which ends its sequence. If the contact replies STOP after the SMS chat has closed, Retell still marks the contact, but the sequence stops only at its next attempt, and only if Retell Contacts DNC is on. The mark is workspace-wide, so every campaign with Retell Contacts DNC on skips the contact from then on.

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What stays your responsibility

Compliance checks skip numbers you shouldn’t call. They don’t establish that you may call the rest.

• Consent. Retell doesn’t verify that you have consent to call a contact. Before launch, you check a box that reads: “I confirm this campaign respects all applicable legal and consent requirements for the contacts being dialed, including TCPA, state DNC laws, and any opt-in obligations.”
• Calling hours. Retell doesn’t enforce TCPA calling hours. It dials only inside the calling window you set on the sequence, in the time zone the sequence picks for each contact. With Contact’s local time, that’s the time zone of the area code of a US or Canadian number, which may not match where the person is. Other numbers use the fallback time zone. Set a window that meets the calling-hour rules for your contacts. A callback that a contact requests for a specific time goes out at that time, even outside the window.

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FAQ

Related: Dialer overview, choose contacts, build a sequence, do-not-call requests, and Contacts.