# MSG-263 — An abandoned-cart message must carry an opt-out notice

> Every abandoned-cart reminder must tell the recipient how to stop receiving them.

- **Rule ID:** MSG-263
- **Layer:** Message content (`MESSAGE_CONTENT`)
- **Checks:** `cart-reminder message body`
- **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:** AI judgement over the submitted form
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** CTIA
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/message-content/msg-263/

## Why this rule exists

The cart reminder is the message most likely to feel like surveillance: it arrives because the recipient looked at something and did not buy it, and it is the one people most want to stop on the spot. CTIA singles it out for a per-message opt-out notice for that reason, rather than letting it rely on the notice in some earlier message of the programme. Retailers omit it in good faith because the reminder is short by design and every character is fighting for the click — which is exactly the pressure the rule exists to overrule.

## How to fix it

Add "Reply STOP to opt out" to the cart-reminder template itself, not only to the welcome message. Done when the reminder carries it on its own, read in isolation, with no earlier message in the thread.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
Acme Coffee: you left the Ethiopia Guji in your basket. Finish up at https://acmecoffee.com/cart Reply STOP to opt out.
```

## Notes

Universal rather than tagged, because TCR has no use case for abandoned-cart messaging — it is a shape a MARKETING or MIXED campaign takes, and no fact on the registration declares it. The condition is carried in the criteria, which open with a PASS boundary for every campaign that sends no cart reminders.