US SMS marketing laws come down to three federal rules for an event organiser. Get prior express written consent before an autodialed marketing text, stop within ten business days when someone replies STOP or a similar word, and send no telephone solicitation before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. at the recipient's location. States can add their own rules.
Key takeaways
- Marketing texts need prior express written consent, and that consent cannot be a condition of buying a ticket.
- A STOP reply, or any of six other standard words, ends your marketing texts to that person, with ten business days at most to act on it.
- The carriers' industry code, which is good practice rather than law, asks for written consent to marketing texts even where the federal rule might not apply.
The law that applies
The federal law is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and the rule that puts it into practice is the FCC's regulation at 47 CFR 64.1200. It is written in the language of calls, which is the first thing that throws event marketers. A text counts. In an enforcement advisory on text messages, the FCC states that its restrictions on autodialed calls to cell phones cover both voice calls and texts.
The same advisory puts the burden where you would rather it was not: whoever claims to have consent to send robotexts has to prove they obtained it. That single sentence is the reason the rest of this page is about records.
The rule is drafted around messages sent with an automatic telephone dialing system. Whether a given platform falls inside that definition is a question for a lawyer, not for a promoter on a deadline. The practical answer comes from the other side of the market: the carriers' industry code, covered below, asks for written consent to marketing texts regardless.
States can add their own rules on telephone solicitations on top of the federal ones, and the federal rule itself refers to state laws in this area. If your audience is concentrated in one state, check that state's rules before a large send.
Consent: what prior express written consent means
For a text that includes an advertisement or constitutes telemarketing, sent to a mobile number, the rule asks for the prior express written consent of the person you are texting. A presale announcement, a lineup drop with a ticket link and a last release reminder all encourage a purchase, so treat them as marketing.
The regulation defines that consent precisely. It is a written agreement, signed by the person, that clearly authorises the seller to send them advertisements or telemarketing messages, and that names the phone number those messages may go to. An electronic or digital signature counts where federal law or state contract law recognises it. The agreement must also tell the person, clearly and conspicuously, two things: that signing authorises those messages, and that they are not required to sign as a condition of purchasing any property, goods or services.
That last clause matters more for events than for almost any other business. A box at ticket checkout that has to be ticked before the order goes through is not consent to marketing texts. The SMS opt-in has to be its own choice, separate from buying the ticket.
The CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices are an industry document, not a law, and they say so. They were developed by CTIA's member companies across the wireless messaging industry as voluntary best practices. On consent they ask senders to:
- get express written consent specifically for marketing messages, whether or not the federal rules apply;
- show a clear call to action that names the organisation, the number the texts will come from, what the person will receive, and how to opt out;
- keep a record of each opt-in: when it happened, through which form or keyword, the wording the person saw, the campaign, the phone number and who consented;
- treat an opt-in as belonging to one sender and one campaign. It is not transferable, and rented, sold or shared lists should not be used.
The last point is the one co-promotions run into. A number a venue or a partner promoter collected was given to them, not to you.
Opting out
The opt-out rule is changing this month, so here is the text in force today and the version that replaces it.
Today, under paragraph (a)(10) of the rule, a person may revoke consent by any reasonable method that clearly says they want no more messages. A reply of stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel or unsubscribe is reasonable by definition. A reply in other words also counts if a reasonable person would read it as a request to stop. A sender may not designate an exclusive way to opt out.
From 25 November 2026, a final rule published in the Federal Register lets a sender designate one of three methods as the exclusive way to revoke consent: replying with one of those seven standard words, an automated opt-out on a call, or a website or phone number the sender provides. The designated method has to be disclosed clearly in each text. For a reply word, naming just one of the seven, for example STOP, is enough, as long as the sender treats all seven as valid. A sender that designates nothing must still accept any reasonable request.
Three things do not change:
- Ten business days. Every valid request must be honoured within a reasonable time that does not exceed ten business days from receipt.
- One confirmation text. You may reply once to confirm the opt-out, with no marketing or promotional content. If it goes out within five minutes, it is presumed to sit within the person's earlier consent.
- Marketing is one block. Under the new text, a request made in reply to a marketing text revokes consent to all future marketing texts from that sender, not just the campaign it came from.
If your texting setup cannot receive replies, the rule asks you to say so clearly in each text and to give other reasonable ways to opt out.
The CTIA code adds its own expectations as good practice: say in each message how to opt out, use standard STOP wording, act on everyday phrasing such as "please opt me out" even with odd capitals or punctuation, and send one final confirmation per campaign, then nothing more.
Who you may text, and when
The quiet hours rule, paragraph (c)(1), bars any telephone solicitation to a residential subscriber before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time at the called party's location. Paragraph (e) applies that rule to telephone solicitations and telemarketing texts to wireless numbers, within the limits set by the FCC's 2003 order on the act.
Read the definition before you plan around it. A telephone solicitation, in the rule, excludes a message to someone who gave prior express invitation or permission, or with whom you have an established business relationship. So the time window is written for people who have not opted in. For a list that did opt in, keeping sends between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the fan's own time zone is still the sensible habit, and it costs nothing. A national tour list spans several time zones, so a 7 p.m. send from New York lands at 4 p.m. in Los Angeles.
The same paragraph covers the National Do Not Call Registry: no telephone solicitation to a number registered there, unless the person signed a written agreement stating they agree to be contacted by that seller, with the number included. Prior express written consent collected properly answers both questions at once.
Sender identity and numbers
US business texts go out from ordinary 10-digit numbers (the industry shorthand is 10DLC), from five or six digit short codes, or from text-enabled toll-free numbers. The CTIA code notes that carriers may add their own checks for business senders, such as campaign pre-approval, vetting, audits and spam filtering, and that short codes have their own cross-carrier registry.
On identity, the code asks that the call to action and the first message name the organisation behind the texts, and that recurring programmes start with a confirmation text giving the programme name, a help contact, how to opt out, how often messages will come and any charges. Links should not hide who is sending.
The rules at a glance
| Rule | What the text says | Source | Law or industry code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consent for marketing texts | Prior express written consent for autodialed advertising or telemarketing to a mobile number | 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(2) | Federal law |
| What consent must contain | Signed written agreement, phone number named, purchase not conditional on signing | 47 CFR 64.1200(f)(9) | Federal law |
| Proof of consent | The sender has the burden of proving consent | FCC Enforcement Advisory DA 16-1299 | FCC guidance |
| Opt-out deadline | Honoured within ten business days at most | 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(10) | Federal law |
| Exclusive opt-out method | Allowed from 25 November 2026 if disclosed in each text | FCC final rule 2026-21821 | Federal law |
| Confirmation text | One, with no marketing, presumed fine within five minutes | 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(12) | Federal law |
| Quiet hours | No telephone solicitation before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., recipient's local time | 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1) | Federal law |
| Do Not Call Registry | No telephone solicitation to registered numbers without a signed written agreement | 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(2) | Federal law |
| Shared or bought lists | Opt-in is not transferable; do not use rented, sold or shared lists | CTIA, sections 5.1.2.2 and 5.1.4 | Industry code |
| Opt-out wording | Standard STOP wording, everyday phrasing honoured, one final confirmation | CTIA, section 5.1.3 | Industry code |
What a US campaign costs
Cost is the other half of the decision, and on SMS it is set per segment, not per contact. A text of up to 160 GSM-7 characters is one segment. A single character outside that alphabet, such as a curly apostrophe or an emoji, switches the whole message to Unicode: 70 characters for one segment, then 67 per segment after that. The free SMS character counter shows the split before you send.
On HIIPE, each contact is saved with the consent they gave and the capture link they came through, which is the record the FCC expects you to be able to produce. A US text costs 15 credits per segment on every plan, drawn from the same balance as email, and credits refill at €2 per 1,000, so a one-segment text to 2,000 fans uses 30,000 credits, or €60 at the refill price; the full grid is on how pricing works.
A short checklist before you send
- The SMS opt-in on your form is a separate, unticked choice, and the purchase does not depend on it.
- The opt-in wording names your organisation, says the texts are marketing and authorises them, and says signing is not a condition of buying.
- Each opt-in is stored with its date, source, wording and phone number.
- No number on the list came from a partner, a venue or a bought file.
- Every marketing text says how to opt out, with STOP as the minimum.
- Opt-outs are applied well inside ten business days, with at most one confirmation text.
- The send lands between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in each recipient's time zone.
- If most of the audience is in one state, that state's rules have been checked.
This page is general information about the federal rules and the industry code as published on 9 November 2026, not legal advice; for a specific campaign, ask a lawyer licensed in the states you are texting.
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