One-to-One Consent Rule
The rule is vacated; the standard survives. Seller-specific, clearly disclosed consent is what carriers, courts, and lead buyers now treat as the floor.
Lead generation's dirty secret was the "marketing partners" hyperlink: one form submission purportedly consenting to texts from hundreds of unnamed companies. The FCC's 2023 rule attacked it by requiring prior express written consent to identify one seller at a time, with messages logically related to the site where consent was given.
In IMC v. FCC (January 2025), the Eleventh Circuit vacated the rule, holding the FCC exceeded its authority by adding restrictions beyond the statutory consent concept.
The practice did not snap back. Courts still scrutinize whether multi-party consent was clear and conspicuous, carriers and CSPs still reject campaigns built on partner-list consent, and several state laws impose seller-specific consent independently. Buying leads "consented" via a 300-company hyperlink remains evidence-poor and increasingly uninsurable.
Frequently asked questions
Related glossary terms
Lead certification is third-party documentation attached to a purchased lead proving when, where, and how the consumer's consent was captured — the mechanism lead buyers use to defend TCPA claims on bought data.
Express written consent is the TCPA standard for marketing SMS — a clear, conspicuous disclosure with a separate, unchecked affirmative opt-in by the consumer, retained as evidence.
A TrustedForm certificate is ActiveProspect's per-lead evidence artifact: a script on the lead form records the consumer's session and issues a certificate URL documenting the form, the consent language, and the interaction.