{
  "id": "BRD-020",
  "slug": "brd-020",
  "title": "Submit the US EIN hyphenated",
  "statement": "A US EIN must be submitted in the hyphenated XX-XXXXXXX form.",
  "rationale": "Several providers match the EIN as a string rather than as a number, so an unhyphenated one misses a record that is sitting right there — and the rejection says the business could not be verified, which sends people off to check their address and their name. The hyphen is free to add and every provider that does not require it accepts it anyway.",
  "layer": "BRAND",
  "layerSlug": "brand",
  "object": "brand.ein",
  "severity": "BLOCKING",
  "detectability": [
    "DETERMINISTIC"
  ],
  "failureClass": "RETRY_FIELD",
  "authorities": [
    "Twilio",
    "Telnyx",
    "Sinch"
  ],
  "applicabilityText": "Applies to every 10DLC registration.",
  "universal": true,
  "remediation": "Reformat the EIN as two digits, a hyphen, then seven digits. Done when the value reads 12-3456789 rather than 123456789.",
  "example": "ein: 12-3456789",
  "notes": "Three providers require the hyphen and the rest accept it, so this is authored universally rather than provider-tagged: the strict-superset form costs nothing and a tag here would silently drop the requirement for the providers that do enforce it. Distinct from BRD-019, which checks there are nine digits at all — the catalog says explicitly not to merge them.",
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": true,
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-020/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-020.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}