PUBLIC_PROFIT means the shares actually trade

The requirementstatement

The PUBLIC_PROFIT classification is available only to a company whose shares are genuinely publicly traded.

Severityseverity: BlockingBLOCKINGBreaking this rule gets the submission rejected. There is no partial credit.
When it bitesphase: Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
What is checkedobject: brand.entity_type
Where it liveslayer: BrandBRAND
How Ekas settles itdetectability: External recordEXTERNAL_DATA; The fact that settles it lives in a register we cannot query, such as the IRS file, a postal database, or another provider’s tenant. Reported as a warning with the evidence to check, not as a pass.
What the fix involvesfailureClass: Wait on someone elseTERMINAL_EXTERNAL; Needs an external system or a waiting period, such as IRS propagation, a vetting result, or a carrier queue.
Who requires itauthorities: TwilioTCR
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies when the brand is a public company.

Why this rule existsrationale

Public companies start at the top carrier trust class and get the throughput that comes with it, so the claim is checked against an exchange listing rather than taken from the form. The mistake is usually a large private company reading "public" as "well known", and the result is not a downgrade — it is a failed identity verification, because the ticker matched nothing.

How to fix itremediation

Register as PRIVATE_PROFIT unless the company has a ticker on a recognised exchange. A private company with high volume gets there through external vetting instead, which raises throughput on evidence rather than on classification.

Provider rejection codescodes

The code you get back when this rule is what failed, and whether that provider lets you resubmit.

Provider	Code	Resubmit
Twilio	30796	Yes

Check this yourselfattestation

No tool can settle this one for you. Here is the check, and what wrong looks like.

Do this company's shares trade today, under the symbol on this brand, on a recognised exchange?

1Look the ticker up and confirm it returns this company — not a similarly named one, and not a listing that has since been withdrawn.
2Confirm the company still files with the SEC. A company taken private keeps its remembered ticker and loses the classification.

What wrong looks like: A large, well-known private company reads "public" as "well known". The result is not a downgrade to private — it is a failed identity verification, because the ticker matched nothing.

Notesnotes

The listing is checked against exchange data we do not hold. What the user has to confirm themselves is that the company files with the SEC and its shares trade under the symbol being submitted — a company that was public and has since been taken private is the case that catches people, because the ticker is still remembered.

Rules you will hit next

3 other rules read brand.entity_type. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.

BRD-040Entity type must be one of the five supported valuesBlockingBLOCKING BRD-062GOVERNMENT is for US government bodies onlyBlockingBLOCKING BRD-084Sole proprietor is not supported by every providerBlockingBLOCKING BRD-001A legal company name is required for every entity but a sole proprietorBlockingBLOCKING BRD-002Legal name must match the IRS record for the EINBlockingBLOCKING BRD-003Legal name must carry its exact entity suffix as filedBlockingBLOCKING

All brand rules

BRD-045 is one of 196 brand rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.