A guide to global SMS compliance laws
SMS laws and regulations vary from country to country. Read our guide to understand the crucial aspects of SMS compliance across the globe.
Did you know that in France, businesses can’t send SMS messages on Sundays? And that in Malaysia, the message header must clarify that recipients won’t be charged for receiving it?
As a global company, staying compliant with SMS laws is crucial. But it’s not straightforward. Each country and state may have its own rules, and mobile carriers add another layer of complexity. While achieving 100% compliance might seem impossible, the risks of non-compliance—blocked messages, reputational damage, lost business, and fines—are too significant to ignore.
To help you stay informed, we’ll start this guide by summarizing the most common aspects of SMS compliance globally. Please note: this content is provided for information purposes only and should not be relied on as legal or compliance advice.
A summary of global SMS rules
Opt-in (and out): In most countries you can only send SMS messages to customers that have opted-in to receiving them. Beware that that the definition of ‘opt-in’ has matured and usually has to be explicit. Implied opt-in because a customer bought a product or service and forgot to uncheck a tick-box is no longer acceptable. In addition, you will in most cases need to include a free unsubscribe link to allow people to opt out of receiving SMS from you.
Sender ID: A Sender ID refers to the name of the sender in the recipient’s inbox. In some markets, you can use alphanumeric senders, meaning that you can send SMS messages using your own brand name rather than a number your customers don’t recognize. However, this option is not available everywhere. In markets such as Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and the Philippines, you have to pre-register your Sender ID due to rules that prevent duplication and fraud.
Message content: Most countries differentiate between transactional and marketing messages and apply different restrictions. A delivery notification or a weather alert would be classed as transactional, while any promotional or sales message would come under marketing. Even in regions where marketing messages are allowed, there are usually additional restrictions on content related to gambling, drugs and alcohol, adult-themed products, and both political and religious topics.
Message length: It is commonly accepted that 160 characters is the limit for SMS messages, but this can be less in some countries. For example it is 157 in Brazil, and you may end up paying for two messages if you go slightly over 157 and truncation is applied. It is up to individual carriers in each country whether to support truncation. Be warned that some carriers will only send the first 160 characters, with the rest being discarded.
Sending time: In many countries, you are only allowed to message customers between certain hours, such as 8am and 8pm, and sometimes not at all on certain days, for example on Sundays in France.
‘Do not contact’ registries: In many countries, consumers can opt out of receiving business communications by signing up to do-not-contact or do-not-disturb registries. If you ignore this, you run the risk of service suspensions or fines.
Next, we will provide you with a summary of the rules in each region. For information on specific countries please have a look at our SMS coverage and connectivity guide with details on just about every country in the world.
SMS regulations in the US
These are most important elements of SMS compliance in the United States.
- Registration required: In the US all messaging programs must be registered. Unregistered traffic is not allowed.
- Content restrictions: Certain types of content, such as gambling, drugs, alcohol, firearms, and adult content, are prohibited from being promoted. Promotion of some financial products, such as certain loans, debt relief, and credit repair, is also prohibited. Lead-generation campaigns that involve sharing collected information with third parties are also disallowed.
- Opt-in requirement: Both marketing and transactional messaging are allowed, but only to subscribers who have opted to receive them.
- Two-way messaging: All commercial text messages must be two-way, which enables customers to opt out of receiving further messages and obtain support by texting “HELP”.
- Multiple sender types: In the US businesses can use short codes or 10-digit long codes (10 DLCs).
- Legislation: The key legislation covering SMS messaging in the US is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), a trade group representing wireless carriers and others in the telecom industry, lays out additional guidelines for SMS marketing in its Short Code Monitoring Handbook. Also, each individual carrier network is privately owned and operated, and as such, they reserve the right to approve, reject, question, or disable any campaign on their network. Some carriers have their own individual Code of Conduct.
SMS compliance checklist for the US
Before diving into the specific steps, it’s crucial to understand the distinction between legal requirements and carrier guidelines in the United States.
- The TCPA sets the legal framework, prohibiting the sending of unsolicited text messages (SMS) to consumers without their consent. Non-compliance can lead to hefty class-action lawsuits and fines of up to $1500 per text.
- CTIA guidelines are carrier-specific rules that further protect consumers. Adhering to them is essential to avoid fines, maintain a positive reputation and ensure uninterrupted sending capabilities.
With that explained, here are the steps you need to take to keep your SMS program compliant in the US:
Additional information about SMS compliance in the US
The following is a summary of a 45-minute live session we at Infobip organized for marketing platforms and agencies on the topic of SMS and MMS compliance. A panel of mobile messaging experts answered the questions.
SMS regulations in Europe
There are 27 countries in the European Union and a further 3 countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) that are also covered by European rules that apply to privacy and electronic communication (Norway, Lichtenstein, and Iceland).
GDPR is the mostly widely recognized Europe-wide legislation, but there are others like the E-privacy Directive, as well as specific regulations in individual countries. For example, some EU countries allow one-way commercial SMS messages to be sent and others do not.
On the whole however, SMS regulations in Europe are some of the tightest and strictly enforced in the world, especially when it comes to opt-in and crucially opt-out.
- Consumers must explicitly opt-in to receive marking communication – it must be clear and unambiguous, and all the information required for them to understand what they are signing up for must be easily available, for example via a link to the company’s privacy policy.
- All marketing messages sent from a business, including SMS, must include a simple and free method of opting out, for example replying with the text STOP. Removing consent has to be as easy as granting it in the first place.
GDPR is definitely not toothless legislation. Just ask British Airways who were fined £20 million after the personal data of over 400,000 customers was stolen by hackers. Hotel chain Marriott International took an even bigger hit of nearly £100 million when it had to pay compensation to millions of people whose private data was stolen from the organization.
While fines for not complying with SMS regulations are nowhere as high, they are still significant enough that businesses have to be very careful to not break any rules.
SMS regulations in APAC (Asia-Pacific)
The Asia-Pacific region is the largest SMS market in the world. In the list of countries with the most active mobile phone users, the top three spots are occupied by APAC nations: China, India, and Indonesia. Have a more detailed look into the regulations for the most significant APAC markets below:
SMS regulations in MENA (Middle East & Northern Africa)
Reports on MENA show an increasing demand in SMS and CPaaS solutions due to a wider adoption of CRM systems across industries, investments in customer experience, and growing cybersecurity demands. Here is an overview of SMS regulations in some of the largest markets in MENA.
How to ensure SMS compliance globally
For global companies looking to start SMS programs in specific countries, the complexities of SMS compliance can pose quite a challenge. There is little doubt that to succeed, you will need the help of an experienced and proven enterprise SMS API provider.
We would love to help. We have years of hard-won experience in global SMS delivery and compliance capability is actually built into our platform. And we certainly know our rules – we have staff on the ground on every continent keeping on top of local legislation and maintaining relationships with the biggest network of providers of any SMS supplier.
The end result? Our customers remain compliant in every territory and get the best possible delivery rates.
Reach out for help with SMS compliance
Talk to an expertThis blog was originally published in May 2022, and last updated in May 2024. Updates include more information on SMS compliance in the US (including a checklist), as well as updates to chapters about APAC and MENA.
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