Arkansas rules for your website, business phone and email

What Arkansas adds to the federal rules

Federal law governs most texting, calling and email. Start with the TCPA guide and the call recording guide. Arkansas layers a short list of its own rules on top. Below are the ones with a sourced requirement in October 2026, and a note where the state is silent. General information, not legal advice. Confirm anything you rely on with the agency named in each section.

Advertise under your licensed name, and post the sign

We found no statewide rule on what an ad must say, but the residential contractor law is specific about identity. Under Ark. Code 17-25-508, a contractor licensed by the Residential Contractors Committee may act as a contractor only in the name under which it is licensed. Roofing contractors who hold a registration certificate have the same restriction in section 17-25-606.

For a website, that means the business name on your homepage, Google Business Profile, truck lettering and quotes should match the name on the license, not a nickname or a new brand you have not registered. If you rebrand, update the license first.

Rule 17 CAR 295-115 goes further for the field. Each contractor holding a Residential Contractors Committee license must display the license number and the contractor's name, as licensed, in prominent, legible letters at least three inches high on a sign at all residential job sites. That is a physical sign requirement. We read the July 2025 compilation of the residential law and rules and found no equivalent rule requiring a license number on a website or in online ads, so confirm with the Board before you assume either way. Putting the number in your footer is cheap and consistent with the job-site rule. For which jobs need a license at all, see our Arkansas contractor license guide.

What an online quote cannot fix

Section 17-25-515 says a contractor who performs work in violation of the residential licensing subchapter may not bring an action in law or equity to enforce any provision of the contract, or for quantum meruit. The roofing registration law has the same bar for roofers in section 17-25-611. In practice, a quote or e-signed contract on your website does not protect your payment if the job needed a license you did not hold. The Board's FAQ puts the residential license line at work costing more than $2,000 in combined labor and materials. Our service contract guide covers what the document itself should say.

Recording calls in Arkansas

Ark. Code 5-60-120 makes it unlawful to intercept and record a phone or oral communication unless you are a party to it or one party gave prior consent. That makes Arkansas a one-party consent state, so you may record your own customer calls. If the caller is in an all-party consent state, their state's rule can govern, so open recorded calls and AI-answered calls with a short notice. See our AI receptionist guide.

Arkansas telephone solicitation law covers messages

The Arkansas telephone solicitation subchapter (Ark. Code 4-99-401 and following) is more explicit than many states. Section 4-99-403 defines telephone solicitation as a call or message made to encourage buying, renting or investing in property, goods or services. It excludes calls or messages made with the recipient's prior written permission and calls to a consumer with whom the solicitor has a prior or existing business relationship. The statute defines that relationship as a financial transaction between the consumer and the solicitor within the 36 months before the solicitation (the statute text we read was current as of March 2024, so confirm no later amendment with the Attorney General). The statute does not define "message" or say whether it includes texts, so treat a marketing text as inside the definition and follow the federal opt-in rules anyway.

Section 4-99-404 has the Attorney General run a statewide do-not-call database, with a consumer listing charge of up to $10 and a renewal of up to $5 (the Attorney General's consumer page currently says registration is free), and allows federal registrants to be included. Section 4-99-405 makes it a violation to call a consumer in the database, to solicit without first checking the database as the Attorney General specifies, or to violate the federal telemarketing rule at 16 C.F.R. 310.4 as it read on March 1, 2003. The Attorney General's consumer page tells callers to check the registry at least every 31 days and says telemarketers may not call before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. It describes an established business relationship window of 18 months after the last purchase, which is shorter than the statute's 36 months. If you call or text past customers, use the shorter window to stay safe on both.

Section 4-99-406 lists exempt callers: real estate licensees, motor vehicle dealers, insurance agents, registered securities professionals, uncompensated charity callers, newspaper callers, banks, and funeral establishments. Home-service contractors are not on that list. If you run a cold-call or cold-text program, scrub it against the database.

Selling at the customer's home triggers a cancellation right

The Arkansas Home Solicitation Sales Act applies to sales made in the home or at any place that is not the seller's permanent place of business. The Attorney General says it covers purchases of $25 or more and gives the buyer until midnight of the third business day after the sale to cancel for a full refund, for any reason. The salesperson must tell the buyer about the right during the sale, and the seller must provide two copies of a cancellation form plus a copy of the contract or receipt. The Attorney General's page says the Act does not apply to repairs of personal property, such as appliances, when the consumer asks for the home visit.

That page does not cite a section number, and it does not say how the Act treats a quote requested through your website. If your estimator signs customers at their kitchen table, build the cancellation notice and two copies into the contract packet, and ask the Attorney General's consumer protection division or a lawyer how it applies to your setup.

Local sales tax follows where the work happens

The Department of Finance and Administration's sales and use tax FAQs tell providers of taxable services to keep collecting local sales taxes for the jurisdictions in which they perform the work. The same FAQ says the changes of January 1, 2008 did not change the taxation of repair services performed at the customer's location, that a contractor pays tax on materials and may include it in the contract price, and that permits are issued to one business and only that business may use them. The Department treats landscaping and commercial lawn care as taxable services, so a crew working across a county line needs two local rates on its invoices. Register through the Arkansas Taxpayer Access Point. For the general framework, read sales tax on services.

If your customer data is breached

Ark. Code 4-110-105 applies to any person or business that owns or licenses computerized data with personal information. If unencrypted personal information of Arkansas residents is, or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an unauthorized person, you must notify them in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. A breach affecting more than 1,000 individuals also requires notice to the Attorney General, at the same time as individuals are told or within 45 days after you decide there is a reasonable likelihood of harm, whichever comes first. If you decide notice is not needed, keep the written determination and supporting records for five years. Your CRM, website forms and email list hold exactly this kind of data. We did not find a card surcharge statute for Arkansas, so your card processor's contract is the rule that applies.

What this means for your setup

• Website: the licensed business name everywhere, the license number in the footer, and a privacy page that matches what your forms collect.
• Business phone line: a recording notice when you record; scrub cold-call lists against the state and federal databases; honor opt-outs on the same day.
• AI receptionist: tell callers the call is recorded and keep its prompts from promising a price or a free estimate you cannot honor.
• Email and texts: contact past customers inside the 18-month window, keep written permission records, and protect the list.

Our website and phone system services build to these rules, but the rules above bind you whoever builds your stack.

Frequently asked questions