Virginia’s General Assembly made a targeted, practical adjustment to the Virginia Telephone Privacy Protection Act that took effect on January 1, 2026: it rewired key provisions so they apply to “telephone solicitations” broadly, not just “telephone solicitation calls.” In plain terms, the statute now makes it much harder to argue that a marketing text message lives in a different compliance universe than a marketing phone call. This is not a reinvention of the regime, but it is a deliberate clean up that closes drafting gaps and puts text messaging squarely inside the same rule set that has long governed telemarketing conduct.

The headline operational change is the opt out mechanism for marketing text messages. Under Code of Virginia Section 59.1-514, when a recipient receives a telephone solicitation by text message, replying with the word “UNSUBSCRIBE” or “STOP” constitutes a request not to receive future telephone solicitations, and that request must be honored for at least 10 years. That same section continues to anchor the statute’s broader approach to do not contact obligations, including the National Do Not Call Registry framework and an affirmative defense tied to implementing reasonable procedures, including using a recent registry version.

Virginia also used this update to align several related provisions with the expanded scope. Code of Virginia Section 59.1-513 now requires transmission of solicitor identification information for telephone solicitations and, for text message solicitations, treats the requirement as satisfied if the sending number accepts an opt out request by reply text message consistent with Section 59.1-514. Code of Virginia Section 59.1-511 continues the familiar time window, now written for telephone solicitations generally, and Code of Virginia Section 59.1-512 remains focused on voice calls, requiring the caller’s first and last name and the identity of the person on whose behalf the solicitation is made. The amendments also added an “abandoned” call provision: if a live sales representative is not available within 2 seconds of the completed greeting on a telephone solicitation by voice, a prerecorded identification message with a name and telephone number must play.

Companies that rely on vendors should not miss the liability hook. Code of Virginia Section 59.1-514.1 preserves joint and several liability for the seller and the telephone solicitor for violations of these provisions, and it carries a rebuttable presumption that solicitations advertising a seller’s goods or services were made on the seller’s behalf, even without a formal agency relationship. Put together, Virginia’s January 1, 2026 revisions are best viewed as a text messaging compliance “make it explicit” project: clearer opt out mechanics, cleaner statutory language that does not invite channel based loopholes, and the same seller exposure that has driven diligence in other state telemarketing statutes.