# BRD-169 — Decide whether this brand is the seller or the telemarketer

> The brand's role — seller or telemarketer — must be established, because the obligations and the liability differ.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-169
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `the brand's role classification`
- **Severity:** MEDIUM — Usually survives review, but lowers your trust score or invites manual review.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** AI judgement over the submitted form
- **Fix type:** Supply evidence only you hold
- **Required by:** FCC
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-169/

## Why this rule exists

The two roles carry different duties, and a seller is liable for a vendor's failure to honour do-not-call requests even where the seller never touched the message. Businesses assume that engaging an agency transfers the exposure; it adds a second liable party instead. Knowing which side you are on decides who has to hold the consent records and who answers a complaint.

## How to fix it

Write down which role this brand holds and make the consequences explicit in the vendor contract: who holds the consent records, who processes revocations, who answers a complaint. Done when both parties have the same answer in writing.

## Notes

A legal classification rather than a form field, so nothing about it can be validated at submission. The judgement flags which role the registration looks like; the user has to confirm it against their own contracts, because the answer decides where the liability sits rather than what to type.