The ACMA Forum in Washington, DC this May delivered a timely reality check for anyone involved in ecommerce, digital marketing, or basically anyone with a company website. With evolving regulations and growing legal risks, we’re entering a new era of accountability in how we communicate, price, and serve our customers online.

Here are four important takeaways that caught my attention:

1. SMS Marketing: The FCC Is Cracking Down

The FCC has tightened the reins on SMS marketing, and the new rules make one thing crystal clear: you must have a direct relationship with the person you’re texting.

Third-party SMS lists are officially illegal to use for marketing purposes. Even if you’ve followed double opt-in protocols in the past, if the list wasn’t acquired directly from your customer, it’s non-compliant.

Here’s what else to know:

• Time-restricted texting: You can only send texts between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time zone. “Quiet time” rules vary by state, so work with a vendor that can handle compliance at scale.
• Phone number recycling: A Princeton blog post by Kevin Lee and Arvind Narayanan warns that recycled phone numbers can expose users to major privacy risks (Freedom to Tinker, 2021). Each year, about 35 million mobile numbers are disconnected, according to the FCC—and most are eventually reassigned to new users. If you continue texting a recycled number without obtaining fresh consent from the new owner, you could be fined up to $5,000 per message.
  Yes, per message!

The takeaway: Track permissions by both user and number, and keep your records bulletproof.

2. Drip Pricing and Strike-Through Pricing Under Scrutiny

“Drip pricing”—when businesses show a low initial price and reveal extra fees at checkout—is under federal review for being misleading. The focus started with event ticketing but is expanding fast.

New guidance suggests:

• All mandatory fees (including shipping) should be part of the advertised price.
• Handling fees must be clear and justifiable.
• Taxes and government fees are still allowed to be excluded.
• “Strike-through pricing” rules are tightening:
  • The “original” price must have been valid within the last 90 days (unless the seller discloses when it was last in effect).
  • It is considered deceptive to show a markdown from an original price if the item has been marked down.
  • It is becoming more of a best practice to also consider competitor pricing within a local geography when showing discounts to maintain transparency and avoid misleading consumers.

If you’re using pricing strategies as a conversion tool, now’s the time to make sure they’re not putting your brand at risk.

3. Add an Arbitration Clause to Your Terms

One session discussed the growing trend of mass arbitration—where plaintiffs file thousands of individual claims over the same issue (often driven by the same law firm).

To reduce exposure, brands are now adding mandatory arbitration clauses to their customer service agreements and terms of use. But simply having the clause isn’t enough—you need explicit consumer consent.

This one’s easy to overlook, but a missing clause (or weak language) could make you a target.

4. Website Accessibility Is a Legal and Ethical Must

Another hot topic: accessibility. Your website should be usable for all visitors, including those with disabilities.

There are currently no universally accepted federal standards (like WCAG) that have been fully adopted into law—but that doesn’t mean you’re safe. Brands are already facing lawsuits over inaccessible websites, even in the absence of clear guidelines.

Best practices:

• Use alt text for images
• Ensure keyboard navigation works
• Provide transcripts for video/audio
• Don’t rely on color alone for meaning

Making your website inclusive isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s a smart move for risk management.

There are premium standalone accessibility services available to help ensure your website is inclusive and even some simple-to-install widgets (like Ally by Elementor) available as plugins with free and paid versions on WordPress. Discuss with your legal team to determine which is best for your brand.

Caveat: I’m not a lawyer, and this post isn’t legal advice. But I’m sharing what I learned in hopes of sparking more awareness and action among business and marketing leaders.

Keeping up with evolving regulations while managing your daily responsibilities isn’t easy. That’s why Cross Country Computer remains an active member of the ACMA—and why we highly recommend joining.  From how you collect consent to how you display pricing, the standards for transparency, fairness, and accessibility are rising. Now is the time to audit your practices and ensure your systems are keeping pace.