Declining messages must not block the primary action

The requirementstatement

The consumer must be able to decline SMS and still complete the purchase, signup, or account creation.

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 surface
Where it liveslayer: Consent flowCONSENT_FLOW
How Ekas settles itdetectability: AI · crawlCRAWLAI · visionVISION; Needs your live site or policy page fetched and read. Ekas crawls it the way a reviewer would. Needs the pixels: a screenshot of the opt-in surface, a scanned paper form, an MMS attachment.
What the fix involvesfailureClass: Fix the websiteTERMINAL_WEBSITE; The fix lives on your site. No amount of rewording the form clears it.
Who requires itauthorities: FCCTCRTwilioAWS
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies when the use case is NOT TWO_FACTOR_AUTH, SECURITY_ALERT and FRAUD_ALERT.

Why this rule existsrationale

Consent that is the price of checkout is coerced, and coerced consent is not consent — the FCC treats it as void and carriers treat it as a blocking defect. It is also self-defeating commercially: a list built this way has the opt-out and complaint rates of a purchased list.

How to fix itremediation

Remove any required-field validation on the consent control and test the form end to end with the box unchecked. Remove asterisks or "required" markers from the messaging opt-in, and offer email or voice as an alternative channel where a contact method is genuinely needed.

Common mistakespitfalls

A 2FA or fraud-alert program legitimately requires the number — those use cases are excluded from this rule rather than exempted by argument.

Provider rejection codescodes

The code you get back when this rule is what failed, and whether that provider lets you resubmit.

Provider	Code	Resubmit
Twiliogen2	30923	Yes
Twiliogen2	30931	Yes

Rules you will hit next

6 other rules read consent surface. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.

CON-043A mandatory phone field needs its own separate, optional SMS opt-inBlockingBLOCKING CON-108The disclosure must be on the same page as the phone-number fieldBlockingBLOCKING CON-AGE-GATEAge-gated programs require real age verification at opt-inBlockingBLOCKING CON-BOX-BUNDLEDMessaging consent must be separate from terms acceptanceBlockingBLOCKING CON-BOX-PRESENTAn explicit affirmative opt-in control must existBlockingBLOCKING CON-BOX-UNCHECKEDThe consent control must be unchecked by defaultBlockingBLOCKING

All consent flow rules

CON-NOT-GATED is one of 101 consent flow rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.