Is Oregon a one-party consent state?

§ 165.540(1)(a) bars obtaining any part of a telecommunication you are not a participant in, unless at least one participant consents. A participant on a phone call can record it. § 165.540(1)(c) sets a stricter rule for conversations: recording one by any device is barred unless all participants are specifically informed that it is being recorded.

Oregon's rule that all participants in an in-person conversation be specifically informed before it is recorded (§ 165.540(1)(c)) is content-neutral and does not violate the First Amendment.

Oregon splits the rule by type of communication. A phone call is a telecommunication under § 165.540(1)(a), so one participant's consent is enough. A face-to-face conversation falls under § 165.540(1)(c), which requires that every participant be specifically informed, with exceptions in § 165.540(6) for public meetings and for private meetings where everyone knew or should have known of the recording. In 2025 the full Ninth Circuit upheld subsection (1)(c) against a First Amendment challenge, and the Supreme Court declined to review it in October 2025, so older guides saying it was struck down are out of date.

Oregon is a one-party consent state for phone calls, so the penalty applies to recording a call you are not a participant in when no participant has consented (§ 165.540(1)(a)). It also applies to recording an in-person conversation without telling all participants (§ 165.540(1)(c)). A violation is a Class A misdemeanor (§ 165.540(9)), punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a fine of up to $6,250 (§§ 161.615, 161.635). Section 165.540 has no civil remedy of its own. § 133.739 allows a suit for actual damages of at least $100 a day or $1,000, punitive damages and attorney fees, but its text covers interceptions that violate the court-order rules in §§ 133.724 and 133.737. Federal law gives a right to sue for this kind of interception (18 U.S.C. § 2520).

Outbound calls that use an AI voice need the called party's prior express consent, unless the call is for an emergency or fits an FCC exemption. AI-voice calls that include telemarketing need prior express written consent. The FCC ruled in February 2024 (FCC 24-17) that an AI-generated voice is an artificial voice under the TCPA, so these calls must also identify the caller and, for telemarketing, offer a way to opt out.

Federal rules allow telemarketing calls from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the called party's local time. Some states set a shorter window, listed below when they do.

Oregon bars telephone solicitations, including sales texts, outside 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and more than 3 times to the same party in 24 hours, unless there is an established business relationship from the past 18 months (§§ 646.561, 646.563(1)(b)). A caller may not misstate who they are or the purpose of the call, and must stop calling a party who asks not to be called again (§ 646.563(1)). Sales calls to numbers on the federal Do Not Call Registry are barred (§ 646.569).