{
  "id": "POL-200",
  "slug": "pol-200",
  "title": "The terms need an acceptance clause",
  "statement": "The terms of service must include an acceptance clause saying that using the service constitutes agreement.",
  "rationale": "Without it the document is a statement of intent rather than an agreement, and nothing in it binds anybody — which matters the first time a business needs to rely on a term. It is also the clause whose absence most obviously marks a page as a stub somebody generated to fill a field.",
  "layer": "POLICY_PAGE",
  "layerSlug": "policy-page",
  "object": "terms of service body",
  "severity": "MEDIUM",
  "detectability": [
    "CRAWL"
  ],
  "failureClass": "TERMINAL_POLICY",
  "artifact": "sms_terms",
  "authorities": [
    "TCR"
  ],
  "applicabilityText": "Applies to every 10DLC registration.",
  "universal": true,
  "remediation": "Open the document with the acceptance sentence. Done when the terms say what the reader is agreeing to and by doing what.",
  "example": "By using acmecoffee.com or placing an order with us, you agree to these terms.",
  "notes": "The acceptance clause must not be used as the SMS consent mechanism — agreeing to terms is not agreeing to receive text messages, and treating it as such is a consent-surface defect rather than a drafting one.",
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": true,
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/policy-page/pol-200/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/policy-page/pol-200.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}