Effective June 9, 2022, the state of Washington (WA) is imposing new compliance regulations (1497-S.SL) in addition to nationwide, federal TCPA regulations and industry standards required by cellular carriers. The impact specifically to SMS is currently unclear. Our team is actively monitoring and working on additional solutions as these types of state-level regulations become more common.
The penalty (per person receiving non-compliant messages) is $100 per violation. Merchants who repeatedly violate Washington’s quiet hours could be subject to litigation. These legislation-level changes will affect all brands who have subscribers in Washington, regardless of what SMS platform they’re using.
What Are The Key Changes?
Shorter waking hours for Washington residents. Starting June 9th, 2022, Washington's waking hours are 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM PT for both campaigns and automations.
Prior to June 9th, Washington followed standard Global (US/CAN excluding FL) waking hours:- Campaign waking hours from 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM ET.
- Automation waking hours from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM ET.
How You Can Prepare
We recommend updating your Messaging Terms to reflect Florida and Washington-specific language. For shops using Dynamic Hosted Messaging Terms and Messaging Privacy Policy, no action is required to update your Messaging Terms. Postscript has already taken care of updating the messaging terms to reflect the changes.
For shops that are not using Dynamic Hosted Messaging Terms and Messaging Privacy Policy, please find updated disclaimer language below to manually update Section 12 of your Terms and Conditions. View our full Terms of Service template and instructions here.
Florida: 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.
Washington: To the extent the law is relevant and applicable to the Program, we endeavor to comply with the commercial telephone solicitation requirements pursuant to the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) (including but not limited to sections 80.36.390, 19.158.040, 19.158.110 and 19.158) as applicable to Washington residents. For purposes of compliance, you agree that we may assume that you are a Washington resident if, at the time of opt-in to the Program, the area code for the phone number used to opt-into the Program is a Washington area code.
How We're Solving For Quiet Hours
In the case of Washington quiet hours, Postscript will screen subscribers and customers by area code to identify Washington residents and prevent messages from going to Washington numbers during Washington’s quiet hours (8:00 PM to 8:00 AM PST) for campaigns, automations, and flows.
No action is needed for legacy campaigns or campaign flows.
To ensure compliance, Postscript will not send campaigns or campaign flows to Washington-based subscribers unless the campaign is scheduled to send during Washington’s waking hours (8:00 AM to 8:00 PM PST).
If any messages within a campaign flow are sent or scheduled to send during Washington's quiet hours and the target segment includes Washington-based subscribers, Postscript will schedule those messages to send to Washington subscribers when Washington's waking hours resume at 8:00 AM PT.
If a legacy campaign is sent or scheduled to send during Washington’s quiet hours and includes Washington-based subscribers in the target segment, Postscript will automatically remove those subscribers based on phone area code and they will not receive your campaign. Your shop will not be charged for these unsent messages.
No action is needed for legacy automations or automation flows.
To ensure compliance, Postscript will not send automations or automation flows to Washington-based subscribers unless the automation is scheduled to send during Washington’s waking hours (8:00 AM to 8:00 PM PST).
If an automation or automation flow is sent or scheduled to send during Washington’s quiet hours and includes Washington-based subscribers in the target segment, Postscript will hold off sending the message until Washington's waking hours which begin at 8:00 AM PT.
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 stress 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.
Get Support
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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