# WEB-137 — No deceptive marketing claims on the site

> The brand website must not host or promote unsubstantiated health or product claims, fabricated urgency, unverifiable guarantees, unauthenticatable testimonials or false endorsements.

- **Rule ID:** WEB-137
- **Layer:** Website (`WEBSITE`)
- **Checks:** `crawled website content`
- **Severity:** BLOCKING — Breaking this rule gets the submission rejected outright.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** AI judgement over the crawled website or policy page
- **Fix type:** Fix the website — no form edit clears it
- **Required by:** Twilio, Bandwidth, AT&T, CTIA, FTC
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/website/web-137/

## Why this rule exists

CTIA folds the FTC truth-in-advertising rules into the messaging framework, so the site is read against them and a claim that would draw an FTC letter draws a carrier rejection first. Almost every business trips this through ordinary conversion copywriting — a countdown that resets, a "doctor recommended" with no doctor, a testimonial with initials instead of a name — none of which was written to deceive anyone.

## How to fix it

Qualify or remove each claim: name the source for a health or performance claim, make the deadline on any urgency real, and attribute testimonials to identifiable people. Done when every claim on the page could be defended with something you hold.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
"In a 2025 survey of 400 Acme Coffee subscribers, 82% said they brewed more often at home" — rather than "everyone brews better with Acme".
```

## Provider rejection codes

| Provider | Code | Resubmission allowed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Twilio (gen2) | `30962` | yes |

## Notes

Distinct from WEB-024, which asks whether the site is real at all. A completely genuine business fails this rule on its marketing copy.