{
  "id": "BRD-170",
  "slug": "brd-170",
  "title": "An agency arrangement does not shield either party in Virginia",
  "statement": "Virginia holds the telephone solicitor and the seller jointly liable, and an agency arrangement does not shield either from the other's failure.",
  "rationale": "Joint liability means both parties answer for the same violation, so the usual contractual comfort — the vendor indemnifies the brand, or the brand disclaims the vendor — allocates cost between them without reducing either one's exposure to the regulator. Businesses discover this after a complaint, when both names are on it.",
  "layer": "BRAND",
  "layerSlug": "brand",
  "object": "the brand's role classification",
  "severity": "MEDIUM",
  "detectability": [
    "HUMAN"
  ],
  "failureClass": "TERMINAL_EVIDENCE",
  "authorities": [
    "Virginia SB 1339"
  ],
  "applicabilityText": "Applies to every 10DLC registration.",
  "universal": true,
  "remediation": "Where messages reach Virginia numbers, treat compliance as a shared duty rather than a delegated one: both parties keep consent records, and both can evidence how revocations are processed. Done when either party could answer a complaint without the other.",
  "notes": "A state-law exposure rather than a registration check, and nothing in a submission reveals where the recipients are. What the user has to do is establish whether their list reaches Virginia numbers and, if it does, make sure their own records would stand up on their own — an indemnity from a vendor is not a defence to the regulator.",
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": false,
  "attestation": {
    "question": "Does your list reach Virginia numbers — and if so, could each party answer a complaint from its own records, without the other?",
    "howToCheck": [
      "Check the list for Virginia area codes and recipient states.",
      "Where it reaches them, confirm both the seller and the solicitor hold consent records and can evidence how revocations are processed.",
      "Read your vendor contract for what it actually does: an indemnity allocates cost between the parties, it is not a defence to the regulator."
    ],
    "failureLooksLike": "Both names are on the complaint. The contractual comfort each party relied on turns out to have reduced neither party's exposure."
  },
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-170/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-170.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}