Toll-free keyword behaviour cannot be customised, so do not promise it
The requirementstatement
A toll-free programme must not tell consumers that STOP, UNSTOP or START will behave in any way other than the fixed carrier behaviour.
- 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.message_flow + campaign.sample[] + auto-replies
- Where it liveslayer
- OperationalOPERATIONAL
- 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
- AWSCTIA
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
On toll-free numbers the mandatory keywords are handled by the carrier before the message ever reaches the sender, and the behaviour cannot be changed or intercepted. Copy promising something else — "reply STOP PROMOS to leave only marketing", "text UNSTOP to resume your alerts" — describes a programme that cannot exist, so the consumer's reply does something different from what they were told and the brand looks like it ignored them.
How to fix itremediation
Describe only the standard behaviour: STOP stops everything on that number, START resumes it, HELP returns support information. Move any per-category preference to a link or a preference centre rather than a keyword. Done when no copy promises a keyword outcome the carrier does not implement.
A compliant exampleexample
Reply STOP to unsubscribe. To choose which Acme Coffee messages you get, visit acmecoffee.com/preferences.
Notesnotes
Applies to the toll-free path only; on 10DLC long codes the keyword handler is the sender's own and custom keywords are legitimate. The applicability model has no dimension for the submission path, so the condition is carried in the criteria — the judge is told to PASS immediately unless the submission is toll-free.
Rules you will hit next
Other operational rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.
OPS-034A programme in another language still owes the English keywordHighHIGHOPS-035The mandatory keywords must work over MMS tooHighHIGHOPS-044Suppression is brand-wide, not per numberHighHIGHOPS-047A state may give you less time than the federal limitHighHIGHOPS-052Silence after a scope question revokes everythingHighHIGHOPS-053A STOP answering a scope question must not be answered with anotherHighHIGH
OPS-073 is one of 139 operational rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.