# OPS-102 — The national do-not-call registry must be scrubbed before any solicitation

> Recipient lists must be scrubbed against the national do-not-call registry before any telephone solicitation, unless prior express written consent or an established business relationship applies.

- **Rule ID:** OPS-102
- **Layer:** Operational (`OPERATIONAL`)
- **Checks:** `recipient list against the national registry`
- **Severity:** BLOCKING — Breaking this rule gets the submission rejected outright.
- **When it bites:** Falls due after approval, once you are live and sending
- **How it is detected:** External record we cannot query — reported as a warning to verify
- **Fix type:** Wait on an external system or a required interval
- **Required by:** FCC, FTC
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-102/

## Why this rule exists

Registry violations carry per-message statutory damages and are the single most litigated part of the framework, and the exemptions are narrower than operators assume — an established business relationship expires, and "we have their number" is not express written consent. The scrub is what converts an argument about the exemption into a list that never contained the number.

## How to fix it

Subscribe to the registry for the area codes you message, scrub before every solicitation send, and keep the scrub record with its registry version date. Done when a solicitation list has been through a scrub you can evidence, not merely through a consent check.

## Common mistakes

- Relying on consent to skip the scrub is defensible only where the consent is genuinely express and written; scrubbing anyway costs little and removes the argument.

## Check this yourself

**Which of your sends are solicitations — and has each of those lists been through a national registry scrub you can evidence?**

1. Classify your sends. The classification is yours, and getting it wrong in the permissive direction is where the exposure sits.
2. Subscribe to the registry for the area codes you message, and scrub before every solicitation send.
3. Keep the scrub record with its registry version date.

*What wrong looks like:* The exemptions are narrower than operators assume — an established business relationship expires, and "we have their number" is not express written consent. Relying on consent to skip the scrub leaves an argument where a clean list would have left none.

## Notes

A federal subscription we cannot hold for the brand. What the user has to do is register for access, pay the per-area-code fee, and decide which of their sends are solicitations — the classification is theirs, and getting it wrong in the permissive direction is where the exposure sits. OPS-109 covers documenting the process.