A call recording is not the written consent
The requirementstatement
A recording of the consumer agreeing does not satisfy a requirement for consent in writing.
- 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
- consent artifact medium
- Where it liveslayer
- Consent flowCONSENT_FLOW
- How Ekas settles itdetectability
- AI · formAI_FORM
- A semantic question about what you wrote: whether a description matches a use case, whether a name looks like a filed entity. Judged by a model against written criteria.
- What the fix involvesfailureClass
- Supply evidenceTERMINAL_EVIDENCE
- Needs proof only you hold: a screenshot, a recording, a scan of the form people signed.
- Who requires itauthorities
- E-SIGN ActFCC
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies when the use case is MARKETING, MIXED, SWEEPSTAKE and LOW_VOLUME.
Why this rule existsrationale
E-SIGN gives electronic records the force of a writing but expressly excludes oral recordings, so a recorded yes is strong evidence of consent and is still not the writing the rule asks for. Call centres reach for it in good faith because the recording feels more probative than a tick box — and it is, on every question except the one that decides the case.
How to fix itremediation
Keep the recording, and add a writing beside it: send a confirmation link the consumer submits, capture a DTMF keypress, or follow the call with a double opt-in text they reply to. Done when a written record exists for each number, with the recording as corroboration rather than as the consent itself.
A compliant exampleexample
Agents capture spoken agreement (call recorded), then send a confirmation text the customer replies YES to; the reply, its timestamp and the number are stored as the written record.
Common mistakespitfalls
- A transcript of the recording is not a cure — it is a record of speech, and the exclusion is about the consent being oral rather than about it being unwritten down.
Notesnotes
Tagged to the promotional use cases for the same reason as CON-151: informational programmes may rest on oral consent, so the writing requirement does not reach them. A DTMF keypress is a stronger theory than a recording, which CON-IVR-CONFIRM already asks IVR flows for.
Rules you will hit next
Other consent flow rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.
CON-008The live CTA and the declared message flow must say the same thingBlockingBLOCKINGCON-010The three subscriber-management attributes must be declared trueBlockingBLOCKINGCON-013Subscriber attributes must agree with the message bodies suppliedBlockingBLOCKINGCON-023Evidence URLs must resolve without a loginBlockingBLOCKINGCON-024The opt-in URL must serve a certificate that verifiesBlockingBLOCKINGCON-027The opt-in URL must land on a page that carries the opt-inBlockingBLOCKING
CON-156 is one of 101 consent flow rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.