The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. § 227) requires Prior Express Written Consent (PEWC) for marketing text messages sent via automated systems. Digital consent is valid — an opt-in checkbox, a keyword response (e.g., "Text JOIN to…"), or a signed electronic form all satisfy PEWC — but the consent must clearly authorize marketing messages from the identified sender.
Current consent standard. The FCC's 2023 one-to-one consent rule (which would have required per-sender consent and prohibited shared consent across brands) was vacated by the 11th Circuit on January 24, 2025 (Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC) and formally removed by the FCC on August 29, 2025. Multi-seller consent is currently permissible under federal TCPA. State laws may be stricter — Florida, Oklahoma, and other states have enacted SMS consent laws that impose additional requirements beyond federal PEWC.
Architectural implications for CDP.
- Consent data model: The consent record must capture: channel (SMS), sender identity, consent date, consent method, and version of terms agreed to. CDPs and CDWs must store these as queryable fields, not just a binary opt-in flag.
- STOP keyword propagation: Consumer opt-out via STOP must propagate to suppression immediately — not on the next batch job. In composable stacks, the suppression table must be queryable with sub-second latency from the activation pathway. A separate FCC order (January 2026) delays the "revocation-all" rule — which would require honoring opt-out via any reasonable channel beyond STOP — until January 31, 2027; organizations with SMS programs active across that date should build for multi-channel opt-out handling before the deadline.
- Consent timestamp gap: Re-consent may be required if consent records are older than the platform's stated data retention window or if the consent terms have materially changed. The agent should flag this for organizations with legacy SMS programs.
- Multi-sender architectures: While the federal one-to-one rule was vacated, organizations operating cross-brand SMS programs should monitor state-level developments; several states are evaluating per-sender requirements independently.
Source confidence note: source.law-cornell-edu.uscode-text-47-227-2026 is a mirror of the statutory text — authoritative for the federal requirement. FCC removal notice and Wiley Rein legal alert corroborate current consent standard.