# BRD-153 — brandRelationship must be one of the five account tiers

> Outside the sole-proprietor tier, brandRelationship must be one of BASIC_ACCOUNT, SMALL_ACCOUNT, MEDIUM_ACCOUNT, LARGE_ACCOUNT or KEY_ACCOUNT.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-153
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.brand_relationship`
- **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
- **Applies:** Applies when the brand is NOT a sole proprietor.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-153/

## Why this rule exists

This field describes the CSP's commercial relationship with the brand, not the brand's size, and it is mandatory — so a submission that leaves it out or invents a value is rejected on a field the customer has never heard of and the integrator guessed at. Nothing downstream depends on which tier is chosen, which is exactly why it gets filled in carelessly.

## How to fix it

Set brandRelationship to the tier that describes your commercial relationship with this customer — BASIC_ACCOUNT is the honest answer for most self-serve registrations. Done when the value is one of the five, in upper case with the underscore.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
brand_relationship: BASIC_ACCOUNT
```

## Provider rejection codes

| Provider | Code | Resubmission allowed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| TCR | `501` | yes |

## Notes

Checked only where a value is present: a registration that has not reached this field yet is undecided rather than wrong. The field is genuinely required at submission, so an empty one will be rejected by the API even though this rule stays quiet about it.