Prior Express Written Consent, Explained for Lead Buyers
The short version
Prior express written consent is a signed, written agreement in which a consumer agrees that a specific named company may contact them using an automated dialing system or a prerecorded message. It has four required parts: the consumer's signature, the name of the company being permitted, a clear statement that automated calls or texts may be used, and a statement that agreeing is not a condition of buying anything. A purchased lead record almost never carries this for you, because the disclosure the consumer signed named the publisher who captured the lead rather than your business.
The four parts
Consent that meets this standard is specific in a way that general marketing opt-in language is not. All four of these have to be present:
**A signature.** Electronic counts — a checked box with a timestamp, an e-signature, a recorded verbal agreement. What matters is that it is attributable to the person and recorded.
**The name of the company.** Yours, spelled out. This is the part that most often fails on a purchased record, and it is the part that decides whether the consent is yours or somebody else's.
**A clear statement about automation.** The consumer has to be told they may receive calls or texts made with an automatic dialing system or a prerecorded voice. Burying it is the same as omitting it.
**That agreement is not required to buy.** Consent cannot be a condition of purchase, and the disclosure has to say so.
What a purchased lead actually carries
When you buy an aged lead you receive a record and a claim that the consumer once agreed to be contacted. That agreement is real. It named the site that captured it, and frequently a list of marketing partners defined broadly enough to mean very little.
That is inherited consent. It is the weakest ground available to you, it was given at a moment that may be many months old, and it is getting weaker as regulators and courts look harder at it.
The practical consequence is narrower than most people assume, and workable: manual dialing and plain email are open to you from day one. Automated dialing and texting wait until the prospect has told your company directly.
Where the rules stand in 2026
Two developments matter for anyone reading older guidance and finding it out of date.
**The one-to-one consent rule.** The FCC rule that would have required separate consent for each individual seller was vacated in January 2025 and formally repealed in August 2025. It is not in force. Plenty of published advice still describes it as though it were, so check the date on anything you read.
**Revocation.** A consumer's request to stop must be honored promptly and across the board. The provision extending a single revocation to all of a sender's messages has been delayed to January 2027.
**State law is the sharper edge.** Florida, Oklahoma, Washington, Maryland and Texas each have their own telephone consumer statutes, several stricter than the federal rule on calling hours and on what counts as consent. Aged lead lists are inherently multi-state, so the strictest applicable rule governs the record in front of you.
Earning consent that names you
Consent you capture yourself is cleaner than anything you can buy, and it appreciates: a prospect who opts in directly can be contacted confidently for years, across channels, without rechecking anyone else's paperwork.
The route is the same one the whole site is built around. Use manual dial and plain email to re-open the conversation, and ask for permission at every point where the prospect engages — on a callback page, at the end of a live call, on a quote delivery, in a nurture email. Six specific plays are set out in the Fresh-Consent Ladder.
Common questions
Does the opt-in on a lead form count as prior express written consent for me?
Almost never. The disclosure the consumer agreed to named the publisher that captured the lead, and often a broadly defined set of marketing partners. For the consent to be yours it has to name your company specifically. Treat what arrives with a purchased record as inherited consent, use manual dial and email to re-open the conversation, and capture your own permission from there.
Is prior express written consent the same as prior express consent?
No, and the difference decides what you may do. Prior express consent is a lower bar and can cover non-marketing calls. Prior express written consent is the higher standard that applies to telemarketing calls and texts made with an automatic dialing system or a prerecorded voice, and it requires the signature, the named company, the automation disclosure and the statement that consent is not a condition of purchase.
Do I need prior express written consent to send a plain email?
No. This standard governs automated calls and texts to phone numbers. Email is regulated separately, principally by CAN-SPAM, which requires accurate headers, a physical postal address and a working unsubscribe that you honor promptly. This is exactly why email carries so much of the load in aged-lead work.
Is the FCC one-to-one consent rule still in effect?
It is not. The rule that would have required separate consent for each individual seller was vacated in January 2025 and formally repealed in August 2025. A great deal of published guidance still describes it as current, so check the date on anything you read about it before acting on it.
How long does prior express written consent last?
There is no federal expiry date, but a consent record does get weaker as it ages, both as evidence and as a reflection of what the consumer actually wants. Revocation is immediate whenever the consumer asks. In practice, treat old consent as a reason to re-earn permission rather than as something that holds indefinitely.