# XBC-003 — Political use case requires a non-profit brand with political vetting

> The POLITICAL use case must sit on a NON_PROFIT brand carrying external political vetting recognised by both AT&T and T-Mobile.

- **Rule ID:** XBC-003
- **Layer:** Brand ↔ campaign (`CROSS`)
- **Checks:** `brand.entity_type + campaign.usecase`
- **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:** Wait on an external system or a required interval
- **Required by:** TCR, AT&T, T-Mobile
- **Applies:** Applies when the use case is POLITICAL.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/cross/xbc-003/

## Why this rule exists

Political messaging is the most scrutinised category on the network, and both major carriers require independent verification that the sender is who they claim to be before granting throughput. Vetting is imported into TCR from an external provider, so it cannot be satisfied by anything you type into the form.

## How to fix it

Register the brand as NON_PROFIT, then obtain political vetting (Campaign Verify or an equivalent both carriers accept) and import it into TCR before submitting the campaign. Do not order a political vet for a brand that already holds 501(c)(3/4/5/6) status — that combination is disallowed.

## Check this yourself

**Is political vetting already imported and visible on the brand, rather than ordered, in progress, or held only as a certificate you have not uploaded?**

1. Open the brand at your provider and confirm a political vet (Campaign Verify, or an equivalent both AT&T and T-Mobile accept) is listed against it.
2. Confirm the brand's entity type is NON_PROFIT, and that it does not also hold 501(c)(3/4/5/6) status — that combination is disallowed.

*What wrong looks like:* The certificate is sitting in an inbox rather than in TCR. Nothing on the campaign form says the vetting is missing, and the campaign is refused for a brand that looks complete.

## Notes

Off-platform: only the entity type is checkable here. The vetting itself is bought from an external provider and imported into TCR, so the user must obtain it themselves and confirm the import landed before submitting — we can never return anything better than UNCLEAR on that half, and a PASS on entity type is not a prediction that the campaign will be approved.