First-party collections messaging must not use third-party framing
The requirementstatement
Campaign content must not promote debt collection presented as third-party activity.
- Severityseverity
- HighHIGHRejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- When it bitesphase
- Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
- What is checkedobject
- campaign.description + campaign.sample[] + campaign.message_flow
- Where it liveslayer
- Message contentMESSAGE_CONTENT
- 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
- Fix the fieldRETRY_FIELD
- A better value in the form fixes it. Ekas can rewrite it and re-check.
- Who requires itauthorities
- TwilioTCRT-MobileAT&TCTIA
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
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 itremediation
Describe the messaging as first-party — your business, your customer, your invoice — and remove agency framing and any threatening language from the samples.
A compliant exampleexample
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.
Notesnotes
Retryable rather than a hard stop, because the usual defect is describing legitimate first-party activity badly.
Rules you will hit next
6 other rules read campaign.description + campaign.sample[] + campaign.message_flow. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.
MSG-137No unsolicited bulk messagingBlockingBLOCKINGMSG-161SHAFT screening covers every campaign field, not a sample of themBlockingBLOCKINGMSG-164No underage, non-consensual or illegal sexual themesBlockingBLOCKINGMSG-170No content promoting, glorifying or inciting violenceBlockingBLOCKINGMSG-182No explosives, fireworks or pyrotechnics contentBlockingBLOCKINGMSG-183No weapons that are not legal in all fifty statesBlockingBLOCKING
MSG-COLLECTIONS-FIRST-PARTY is one of 122 message content rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.