Oregon CCB advertising rules: where the CCB number has to appear

October 20, 2026 · Joshua Hill

The Oregon CCB advertising rules sit in one rule, OAR 812-003-0120, and it has two halves: a contractor needs a current, valid CCB license before advertising at all, and once licensed, the CCB license number has to appear in the advertising itself. That covers websites, written bids, written inspection reports, building contracts, business cards, letterhead, construction site signs, newspaper classified and display ads, telephone directory ads, and radio and television spots, where the number is spoken on radio and shown on screen on television. The only relief is for a permanently affixed sign at the contractor’s own place of business and for promotional gifts such as pens, cups, and clothing.

This is a plain-language walkthrough written by a contractor, not legal advice. Verify the current requirement with the Oregon Construction Contractors Board, and with an attorney if there is money riding on it.

What OAR 812-003-0120 requires

Subsection (1) is the gate. In the rule's own words, "No person shall advertise or otherwise hold out to the public that person's services as a contractor" unless "that person holds a current, valid license." The same subsection bars claiming to be licensed, bonded, or insured without one. Behind it sits ORS 701.021, which requires a current CCB license before a person "undertakes, offers to undertake or submits a bid to do work as a contractor."

Subsection (2) is the half that catches contractors who are licensed and otherwise doing everything right. It lists where the license number has to appear:

• Newsprint classified and display advertising for work covered by ORS chapter 701.
• Written bids, written inspection reports, and building contracts subject to ORS chapter 701.
• Telephone directory space advertising and display advertising.
• Audio-only advertising such as radio, where the number has to be stated out loud.
• Video and combined audio-video advertising such as television, where the number has to be shown visually.
• Internet advertising, including website advertising, where the number has to be shown visually.
• Business cards, letterhead, construction site business signs, and all other written or visual advertising.

The version in force took effect January 1, 2019, filed as CCB 6-2018, under authority of ORS 670.310 and 701.235. The rule text is on the Secretary of State's site as OAR 812-003-0120, and the CCB's own advertising guidelines ask that the number be written with CCB in front of it rather than dropped in as a bare figure.

Online listings and truck lettering

Internet advertising gets its own line in the rule, and the requirement is that the number be visible. In practice that reaches past the website: a Google Business Profile, directory profiles, a Facebook or Instagram business page, and the landing page behind a paid ad are all advertising placed by or for the contractor. The number goes in the site footer so it lands on every page, on the contact page, and in the license field of every profile that offers one. What else that site owes a visitor is in the contractor website checklist, and profile consistency is also how the map pack reads a company as real, covered in the map pack post.

Then there is the truck. Oregon does not carve vehicles out. Subsection (2)(g) sweeps in "all other written or visual advertising," and the only sign relief in the rule is for a permanently affixed sign at the contractor's own place of business. The CCB's guidelines list vehicle signage among the places the number belongs. That matters for anyone working both sides of the Columbia, because Washington goes the other way and carves out signs on a contractor's own vehicles and premises, along with radio and television, as we covered in the Washington advertising rules post.

The two exemptions, and the licensed claim

The first exemption is the shop sign. The rule says written or visual advertising "does not include permanently affixed or attached signs" at a contractor's place, or places, of business "that primarily and prominently display the contractor's name." The sign bolted over the office door is covered by that. Carry a sign to a job and it becomes a construction site business sign, which the rule names and which does need the number.

The second exemption is small merchandise. Subsection (2)(h) says the section does not apply to promotional gifts, naming "pencils, pens, cups and items of clothing." The CCB's guidelines treat items where printing the number is impractical, such as magnets, the same way, and they exempt sponsored sports team uniforms.

The claim language in subsection (1) deserves its own look. A contractor may not hold itself out as licensed, bonded, or insured without a current, valid license, so the phrase "licensed, bonded and insured" on a website carries a claim about the state of the license on the day a reader sees it. A website keeps making that claim long after a renewal date slides past.

What a missing CCB number costs

The penalty schedule is OAR 812-005-0800, last corrected in February 2025. Failing to include the license number in advertising or on contracts runs $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second, and $400 for later ones. Advertising or bidding without a license is $600, reducible if the contractor becomes licensed or withdraws the ad or bid immediately after notice and no work was accepted as a result. It becomes $700 per offense with no reduction available when there was a previous violation, or when an inactive, lapsed, invalid, or misleading license number was used.

That last clause is the one to read twice. A stale number draws the penalty that cannot be reduced, which puts an old license number sitting in a page footer after a lapse in a worse spot than a page with no number at all. A short self check closes most of it:

1. Pull the current license status and the exact registered name from the CCB's license search.
2. Check the website footer and the contact page for the number, written with CCB ahead of it.
3. Open every profile that comes up on a search for the company name and fill in the license field.
4. Read the proposal, inspection report, and contract templates, since the rule names all three.
5. Walk out and look at the truck doors, the site signs, the business cards, and the letterhead.
6. Check anything currently running as paid advertising, including the page it lands on.

How the Bellingham companies run it

We run painting and flooring companies in Bellingham, so the number in our footer is a Washington registration rather than a CCB license. The habit transfers anyway: the number lives in the footer template instead of on pages somebody remembers to edit, and the claim language gets checked against the bond and the certificate of insurance before it goes up.

What goes wrong is drift. A new landing page ships without the footer, an ad runs under a trade name that does not match the registration, a credential lapses and the page keeps saying it. So the advertising check sits on the same calendar as the bond renewal and the insurance certificate, with one person's name next to it. That is the unglamorous half of the system we run, and it is the half that keeps a small complaint from turning into a penalty.

This article describes Oregon rules as we understand them as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and rules change. Confirm the current requirement with the Oregon Construction Contractors Board or an attorney before you act on it.