The terms must describe every opt-in method actually used
The requirementstatement
The SMS terms must describe every way people join the programme, consistently with the registered message flow.
- 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
- SMS terms body vs campaign.message_flow
- 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
- TwilioCTIAVonage
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
Vonage asks for all of them rather than the primary one, because a subscriber who joined at a counter and reads terms describing only a web form cannot tell whether the document applies to them. Programmes accumulate entry points over time — a keyword added for an event, a tick box added at checkout — and the terms are written once.
How to fix itremediation
List every entry point in the terms — the checkout box, the keyword, the paper form, the phone call — and keep the list the same as the message flow. Done when the two documents name the same set.
A compliant exampleexample
You can join Acme Coffee Rewards by ticking the box at checkout on acmecoffee.com, or by texting JOIN to 55512.
Provider rejection codescodes
The code you get back when this rule is what failed, and whether that provider lets you resubmit.
| Provider | Code | Resubmit |
|---|---|---|
| Twiliogen2 | 30909 | Yes |
Notesnotes
Three rules read the same fact from three sources and can disagree independently: POL-091 asks the privacy policy, this one asks the terms against the declared flow, and POL-232 asks the terms against the surfaces found by crawling the site.
Rules you will hit next
Other policy pages rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.
POL-021Policy URLs must not redirectHighHIGHPOL-023A social profile is not a policy pageHighHIGHPOL-025Exactly one privacy policy must be discoverableHighHIGHPOL-026The policy on the site and the policy attached to the registration must agreeHighHIGHPOL-030Both documents must be linked from the site footer on every pageHighHIGHPOL-053The clause must say NOT SHARED, not merely "not sold"HighHIGH
POL-181 is one of 157 policy pages rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.