Placeholder values are not answers
The requirementstatement
Required brand contact and address fields must not hold placeholder values such as N/A, TBD or none.
- 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 contact and address fields
- Where it liveslayer
- BrandBRAND
- How Ekas settles itdetectability
- DeterministicDETERMINISTIC
- Settled in code from the values you submitted. No model involved, no judgement call, same answer every time.
- What the fix involvesfailureClass
- Fix the fieldRETRY_FIELD
- A better value in the form fixes it. Ekas can rewrite it and re-check.
- Who requires itauthorities
- TCRAWSBandwidth
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
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 itremediation
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.
A compliant exampleexample
street: 1240 Mission St, Suite 400 — not "N/A" and not "TBD"
Rules you will hit next
Other brand rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.
BRD-001A legal company name is required for every entity but a sole proprietorBlockingBLOCKINGBRD-002Legal name must match the IRS record for the EINBlockingBLOCKINGBRD-003Legal name must carry its exact entity suffix as filedBlockingBLOCKINGBRD-008Legal name must not carry an appended personal name or roleBlockingBLOCKINGBRD-009The legal name field takes the legal name, not the trading nameBlockingBLOCKINGBRD-011A legal business name may back only one brand across the whole registryBlockingBLOCKING
BRD-270 is one of 196 brand rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.