No document may designate an exclusive way to revoke consent
The requirementstatement
No policy, terms or message copy may state that a single named method is the only way to opt out.
- Severityseverity
- BlockingBLOCKINGBreaking this rule gets the submission rejected. There is no partial credit.
- When it bitesphase
- Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
- What is checkedobject
- privacy policy + SMS terms body
- Where it liveslayer
- Policy pagesPOLICY_PAGE
- 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 policyTERMINAL_POLICY
- The fix lives in your privacy policy or SMS terms. Ekas can generate the missing clauses.
- Who requires itauthorities
- FCC
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
The FCC settled in 2024 that a consumer may revoke consent by any reasonable means, so a document naming one exclusive route is asserting a restriction the rule removes — and the consumer who emails instead of texting STOP, and keeps receiving messages, has a complaint the brand cannot answer. The language is usually written to be helpful: "to unsubscribe, reply STOP" becomes "STOP is the only way to unsubscribe" in an effort to be clear.
How to fix itremediation
Remove any wording that makes one route exclusive and say the opposite: name the easy route and confirm that other reasonable requests are honoured too. Done when no sentence in either document contains "only way", "must be submitted through", or an equivalent.
A compliant exampleexample
Reply STOP to any message to unsubscribe. You can also email support@acmecoffee.com or call 415-555-0134 — we honour any reasonable request to stop.
Common mistakespitfalls
- The exclusivity often lives in a portal or account-settings sentence rather than in the SMS section: "opt-out requests must be submitted through your account" is the same defect wearing different clothes.
Rules you will hit next
One other rule reads privacy policy + SMS terms body. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.
POL-157The documents must describe the programme as it runs todayHighHIGHPOL-001A privacy policy URL is required on the campaignBlockingBLOCKINGPOL-002A terms and conditions URL is required on the campaignBlockingBLOCKINGPOL-003An uploaded policy document must fit the provider file constraintsBlockingBLOCKINGPOL-005The terms and conditions attestation must be setBlockingBLOCKINGPOL-010Both policy URLs must resolve and return content anonymouslyBlockingBLOCKING
POL-117 is one of 157 policy pages rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.