# MSG-COLLECTIONS-FIRST-PARTY — First-party collections messaging must not use third-party framing

> Campaign content must not promote debt collection presented as third-party activity.

- **Rule ID:** MSG-COLLECTIONS-FIRST-PARTY
- **Layer:** Message content (`MESSAGE_CONTENT`)
- **Checks:** `campaign.description + campaign.sample[] + campaign.message_flow`
- **Severity:** HIGH — Rejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- **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:** Twilio, TCR, T-Mobile, AT&T, CTIA
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/message-content/msg-collections-first-party/

## Why this rule exists

First-party collection — a business chasing its own invoice — is registrable, while third-party collection is not. Businesses routinely describe their own collections in agency language, which reads as the prohibited category and gets rejected for something they are not doing.

## How to fix it

Describe the messaging as first-party — your business, your customer, your invoice — and remove agency framing and any threatening language from the samples.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
Acme Coffee: your invoice #4471 for $240 is now 14 days overdue. Pay at https://acmecoffee.com/pay/4471 or reply HELP to reach us. Reply STOP to opt out.
```

## Notes

Retryable rather than a hard stop, because the usual defect is describing legitimate first-party activity badly.