SMS Compliance

Getting your 10DLC brand and campaign approved is only half the job. On top of registration sits US consent law, and it is enforced by three separate layers that all apply at once:

1. TCPA — federal law (47 U.S.C. 227). It governs whether the message is legal to send. It carries a private right of action, so any recipient can sue you directly.
2. CTIA Messaging Principles & Best Practices — the industry standard the carriers enforce. It governs whether your traffic is allowed on the network: opt-in proof, STOP/HELP handling, a public privacy policy, and prohibited content.
3. 10DLC registration in The Campaign Registry plus per-carrier vetting. This is where your consent flow and privacy policy are actually reviewed before you can send.

The three reinforce each other. A campaign can be fully registered and still illegal under the TCPA; a perfectly legal program can still be blocked by carriers if the CTA wording or privacy policy is wrong.

The pages below break down each requirement — the required opt-in elements, mandatory STOP/HELP keywords, the privacy-policy clause carriers demand, prohibited content, and the live litigation risks (quiet hours and the now-dead one-to-one rule).