# BRD-270 — Placeholder values are not answers

> Required brand contact and address fields must not hold placeholder values such as N/A, TBD or none.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-270
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand contact and address fields`
- **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, Bandwidth
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-270/

## Why this rule exists

A form that will not submit without a value teaches people to type N/A, and the field is then populated and useless — worse than empty, because nothing downstream flags it as missing. Reviewers read it as a business unwilling to give its own address, which is a much less charitable reading than the one that is true.

## How to fix it

Replace the placeholder with the real value. Where you genuinely do not have one — a business with no suite number, say — leave the field empty rather than filling it with a word. Done when every populated field holds real data.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
street: 1240 Mission St, Suite 400 — not "N/A" and not "TBD"
```