# BRD-042 — A non-US organisation registers as private for profit

> A brand whose country of registration is not the US must be PRIVATE_PROFIT — GOVERNMENT and NON_PROFIT are US-only classifications.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-042
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.entity_type + brand.country`
- **Severity:** BLOCKING — Breaking this rule gets the submission rejected outright.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** Deterministic (settled in code from the submitted values)
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** TCR, AWS
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-042/

## Why this rule exists

The non-profit and government paths verify against US registers — the IRS exempt-organisation file, US government domains — so a foreign charity selecting NON_PROFIT is checked against a database it cannot appear in and fails for looking fraudulent rather than foreign. Registering as PRIVATE_PROFIT is not a demotion; it is the only classification the verification chain can actually resolve.

## How to fix it

Set entityType to PRIVATE_PROFIT and supply the home country's business registration number. Done when the entity type is PRIVATE_PROFIT and the identifier is the one that country issues.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
entity_type: PRIVATE_PROFIT · country: GB · identifier: the UK company number
```

## Common mistakes

- A foreign non-profit that holds a US EIN can register as NON_PROFIT on the strength of it — the test is the US tax record, not where the charity operates.

## Notes

Also discharges BRD-052, which states the same requirement from the non-profit side: NON_PROFIT is available only to a US-based organisation or one holding a US EIN. The check already carries that exception, so the two are one rule rather than two.