Compliance Update: Florida Messaging - Effective July 1, 2021 – Postscript

In addition to nationwide, federal TCPA regulations and industry standards required by Twilio and cellular carriers, some states impose additional compliance regulations. In this article, we discuss Florida legislation passed in July 2021 (CS/SB 1120). If your brand is headquartered or has significant operations in Florida, these regulations may apply to a good portion of your messages.

The penalty per violation (per person receiving non-compliant messages) is between $500-$1,500. These legislation-level changes will affect all brands who have subscribers in Florida, regardless of what SMS platform they’re using.

What Are The Key Regulations?

Longer quiet hours for Florida subscribers. Quiet hours begin at 8 pm in the recipient’s local timezone and end at 8 am in the recipient's local timezone.

Limitations on Quiet Hour Messages. Conversational (replying to messages from the customer) and transactional messages (shipping confirmations) may no longer be permitted during quiet hours.

Note: If a Florida resident subscribes to (or unsubscribes from) your store during quiet hours, Postscript will still send opt-in or opt-out messages as required by federal law.

Limit of 3 messages within 24 hours for a specific campaign or product. You cannot send more than 3 messages for a specific campaign or product within 24 hours.
- A campaign and automation addressing different products are likely unique enough to be counted separately (allowing for 2 sets of 3 messages).

How We're Solving for Quiet Hours

Postscript screens subscribers and customers by area code and shipping address state (provided by Shopify) to identify Florida residents and prevent messages from going to Florida numbers during Florida’s quiet hours (8 pm - 8 am in subscribers' local timezone).

Below is information regarding how Florida's quiet hours impact automations and campaigns.

If a subscriber with a Florida-based phone number triggers an automation (ex: abandoned cart) during Florida quiet hours, the automation will send during the next waking hours window of 8 am - 8 pm (in subscribers' local timezone).

If a campaign sends during Florida quiet hours, it will not send to subscribers with Florida-based phone numbers. Postscript will not send a campaign to a Florida-based subscriber unless you schedule the campaign in the waking hours window of 8 am - 8 pm (in subscribers' local timezone).

Updating Your Terms

In order to remain compliant, your shop should update your terms and conditions. If you are using Postscript's Dynamic Hosted Messaging Terms and Messaging Privacy Policy, no action is needed.

We have provided updated disclaimer language here. Refer to item #3, highlighted in green, for recommended T&C updates for Florida laws.

The section regarding Florida law reads as follows:

12. Florida Law: We endeavor to comply with the Florida Telemarketing Act and the Florida Do Not Call Act as applicable to Florida residents. For purposes of compliance, you agree that we may assume that you are a Florida resident if, at the time of opt-in to Program, (1) your shipping address, as provided is located in Florida or (2) the area code for the phone number used to opt-into the Program is a Florida area code. You agree that the requirements of the Florida Telemarketing Act and the Florida Do Not Call Act do not apply to you, and you shall not assert that you are a Florida resident, if you do not meet either of these criteria or, in the alternative, do not affirmatively advise us in writing that you are a Florida resident by sending written notice to us. Insofar as you are a Florida resident, you agree that mobile messages sent by Us in direct response to mobile messages or requests from You (including but are not limited to response to Keywords, opt-in, help or stop requests and shipping notifications) shall not constitute a “telephonic sales call” or “commercial telephone solicitation phone call” for purposes of Florida Statutes Section 501 (including but not limited to sections 501.059 and 501.616), to the extent the law is otherwise relevant and applicable.

Postscript: Your Partner In Compliance

At Postscript, we believe in a product-led approach to compliance. This means that compliance will be built into every part of Postscript so you don’t have to think about all of the different requirements.

We’ve added new updates to our platform to help keep users compliant with these new laws, and we are committed to consistently updating our platform to meet changing requirements in the future.

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Have questions? Please feel free to reach out to our wonderful Support team at support@postscript.io or via live chat. You can also submit a support request here!

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