{
  "id": "BRD-039",
  "slug": "brd-039",
  "title": "The sending-volume tier decides whether the sole-proprietor path is available",
  "statement": "A registration that requests a volume tier requiring a tax ID cannot be filed on the sole-proprietor path.",
  "rationale": "The sole-proprietor tier trades verification for throughput: it exists because an individual has no EIN, and it caps sending hard as a consequence. Choosing the tier and then requesting a volume it does not support produces a registration that is internally contradictory, and the platform resolves the contradiction by refusing the tier rather than by lowering the volume. Customers reach it by picking their plan first and their entity type second.",
  "layer": "BRAND",
  "layerSlug": "brand",
  "object": "brand.entity_type + requested volume tier",
  "severity": "BLOCKING",
  "detectability": [
    "DETERMINISTIC"
  ],
  "failureClass": "RETRY_FIELD",
  "authorities": [
    "Textedly",
    "Twilio"
  ],
  "codes": [
    {
      "provider": "Twilio",
      "code": "30903",
      "remediable": true
    }
  ],
  "applicability": {
    "entityTypes": [
      "SOLE_PROPRIETOR"
    ]
  },
  "applicabilityText": "Applies when the brand is a sole proprietor.",
  "universal": false,
  "remediation": "Either drop to the volume the sole-proprietor tier supports — roughly 1,000 messages a day — or obtain an EIN and register as a standard brand at the volume you actually need. Done when the requested class and the entity type describe the same tier.",
  "example": "entity_type: SOLE_PROPRIETOR with no brand class above it — or entity_type: PRIVATE_PROFIT with brand_class: STANDARD",
  "pitfalls": [
    "The cap is enforced by the CSP rather than by the carrier, so the traffic is not rejected message by message — it is throttled or the account is reviewed, which is harder to diagnose than a rejection."
  ],
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": true,
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-039/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-039.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}