The Spanish Government’s crusade against SPAM calls continues. At the beginning of the week, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge approved the new General Regulations supply, marketing and aggregation of electrical energy. The main purpose of this is, according to the Government, to protect consumers through new measures. And one of them collides head-on with a recurring practice of marketers: SPAM calls.
The measure. After the entry into force of the new regulation, telephone calls to advertise or contract services are prohibited, as long as “they have not been expressly requested by the consumer in advance or they are the one who calls the company.”
It will not have immediate effect, companies will have four months to adapt to the regulations, under penalty of fines of between 600,000 and 6,000,000 euros if they fail to comply, according to the Law 24/2013, of the Electrical Sector.
There is more. In addition to the prohibition of calls without express consent, the Royal Decree establishes the obligation to provide a completely free customer service number, as well as a maximum period of 15 days to respond to user claims and complaints.
It is also prohibited to cut power to electro-dependent consumers on holidays and eves.
Very nice, but. Although the Government has been trying to tackle the SPAM problem for more than a year, the reality is very different. According to the OCU, 99% of Spaniards (me among them, this week) continue to receive unwanted calls.
Some companies continue to take advantage prior consent to send advertising communications, and others are providing their call centers with telephone numbers outside the traditional prefixes to continue with their practice, despite the fact that the law penalizes it.
An endless war. The war against SPAM does not only affect
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