T-Mobile Terms of Use Update About Cannabis - Myths and Facts

News is swirling around changes that T-Mobile announced last month, which indicated the telecom giant would be issuing fees for the marketing of cannabis content.

While T-Mobile has always had language in their mass-marketing terms of service disallowing cannabis content, the stated fees are what have caused the commotion, and quite frankly, a TON of misinformation, fear, and concern.

We want to address the myths and misconceptions surrounding this update so you can continue to provide targeted messaging to your customers and not miss out on this crucial revenue stream for your business.

First things first: who is T-Mobile threatening to send a fee to?

“The change only impacts third-party messaging vendors that send commercial mass messaging campaigns for other businesses,” the company wrote in a statement emailed to The Associated Press

NOT your store, not your customers. We won’t go too far into the weeds on telecom infrastructure here, but just so you know exactly why you’re not directly impacted, here’s a little bit of info on how commercial text marketing works:

• Companies like Happy Cabbage empower your store with a text marketing tool you use to send to opted-in customers.
• Happy Cabbage contracts through a telecom aggregator that works with all of the phone companies to deliver these messages.
• These aggregators either contract directly with T-Mobile, or in some cases, there can be yet another layer in between.

Why does that matter?

YOU do not have an agreement directly with T-Mobile that includes these stated fees. Happy Cabbage does not have an agreement directly with T-Mobile that includes these stated fees. The aggregators (or the additional service layers they contract with) are where these terms of service updates apply. To date, the providers Happy Cabbage contracts with directly have informed us it’s business as usual until we hear otherwise. 

By and large, very little is different with sending to T-Mobile customers from previous years. If our service providers determine these fees would apply to Happy Cabbage in the future, we may choose to discontinue sending to T-Mobile customers. We don’t anticipate that, but we also can’t control it.

You can be proactive if you want to ensure you can still communicate with your T-Mobile customers: get them to opt in to email.

Set up a few campaigns that drive email opt-ins, and you can continue to generate incredible ROI using the Happy Marketers email feature.

Have questions? We love to inform! Reach out to talk and our team will address any concern you may have about this.

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