Unwanted advertising remains, in 2025, one of the great daily inconvenience. Text messages that interrupt the desktop, untimely commercial calls or promotional emails that sneak without permission. The advertising exclusion lists They seek to reduce that constant bombardment, And in Spain there are already more than three million people registered in them.
You may have signed up for one of these lists waiting for peace of mind, but the messages are still coming. So what are exactly? Are they fulfilling their function? Or do we expect more than you can really offer? In this article we analyze, with the help of expert voices, how these exclusion systems work and to what extent they manage to fulfill their promise.
What are advertising exclusion lists
“They are services where you can register freely, and what they allow you is to stop receiving commercial communications”, He explains Beatriz RomeroICT law consultant at Secure & It. It details that the user can record the specific channels for which he does not want to receive advertising, such as email, telephone or even domicile, and those that companies must exclude from their campaigns will be precisely.
It is very important to take into account a detail that can go unnoticed: As the consumer portal of the Community of Madrid remembersthese services allow to block communications of companies with which there is no contractual relationship. That is, companies that are not a client or that, even if they do not have express consent to send commercial information.
The Robinson list It exists since 1993, when it focused exclusively on stopping advertising by postal mail. For more than a decade, however, it extended its reach to emails, phone calls and SMS messages. Any natural person can sign up for free From its websiteincluding minor representatives. Registration may take up to two months to become fully effective, and automatically renews each year unless the decline is requested.
The Robinson list is managed by Adigital (Spanish Association of the Digital Economy), an organization that Promotes digital economy in Spain and represents more than 500 companies. Although the service is completely free for citizens, Companies must generally pay to access consultations. There are costs without cost for microenterprises that consult up to 30,000 records per year, but for those that exceed that figure, prices vary depending on the size of the company: from 1,900 euros per year for microenterprises to 5,500 euros for large companies.
There are also additional bonds for large volumes of consultations, which can reach 37,500 euros per year for 2,400 million records. In addition, the list distinguishes between two types of entities: advertisers, who consult the list for their own campaigns, and service providerswho do it in third parties. In this second case, rates are, for some reason, higher: 6,450 euros per year to consult up to 600,000 records.
Since the end of January 2025, the Stop Advertising listan initiative of the Spanish Association for Digital Privacy. Beatriz Romero points out that this new list “expands all those media in which you do not want to receive communications”, including social networks and messaging applications such as WhatsApp.
In addition to blocking advertising in general, the Stop Advertising list allows Adjust the filter by concrete sectors: For example, you can avoid advertising related to insurance or telephony. By default, all sectors are blocked, unless the user indicates otherwise.
Those responsible for the Stop Advertising list note that your initiative It does not come from the business environment, but is oriented to the protection of the citizen. They also underline that the Robinson list is managed by Adigital, an association that, they highlight, represents companies linked to the digital and advertising sector.
Do they really work?
José Manuel Sendíndirector of the Master in Digital Law of the International University of La Rioja (UNIR)recognize that “They work, although they are not infallible. Their effectiveness depends, in part, on the commitment of companies to consult them before launching advertising campaigns. ”
The main problem, he points out, is that many companies subcontract third parties that work with unreliable databases, which leaves holes where unwanted messages sneak into. The main cause of frustration among users is that “large companies subcontract to third parties commercial work that in turn acquire large databases that will later be used in their commercial actions,” says Sendin. That causes it to be very difficult to know if the data is no longer included in the exclusion lists.
“Although it is an obligation by companies, it is also true that many do not consult these lists or are not discharged. In the end, they are subscription services that have a cost for companies, then There are companies that do not pay that cost And they risk being achieved by sanctions, ”says Romero.
When the lists are not enough
If despite being registered in an exclusion list you continue to receive advertising, there are steps that you can follow. The first is to respond directly to the company indicating that you do not want more communications. If the problem persists, there are two ways: go to Self -controlthe advertising self -regulation agency in Spain, for mediation, or submit a claim to the Spanish data protection agency (AEPD).
“We must provide evidence that we have indicated to the company that we are on the Robinson list and that we want them not to contact us again, ”says Sendin. screenshots, emails or call records can be key. From the Community of Madrid they also recommend Keep all high or low communication as support for possible claims.
These lists are not a whim: they are backed by the Organic Data Protection Law (LOPDGDD), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the General Telecommunications Law (LGT). Article 23 of the LOPDGDD explicitly foresees the existence of advertising exclusion systems, Romero details. Besides, AEPD itself remembers that citizens can exercise rights such as opposition, suppression or limitation of the processing of their data before companies.
The AEPD has sanctioned companies several times for ignoring the Robinson list. One of the best known cases is that of Vodafonefined after contacting people registered in this system. In the official resolution of the agency (EXP202305853) It is detailed that a citizen received four commercial calls despite having requested the suppression of their data and being targeted in the exclusion list.
According to the operator, everything was due to a human error: the number did not correctly upload the internal vodafone routing system. The calls were made by a collaborating agency, Vesaleads SL, on behalf of the operator. Although Vodafone claimed that the incidence was already resolved and apologized, the AEPD imposed a sanction of 15,000 euros, which was reduced to 12,000 euros after the voluntary payment.
“On many occasions we consent to the processing of our data without having read the privacy policies. Before marking the box ‘I have read and accept‘, we should make sure we are really satisfied, ”says Sendin. The exclusion lists, as we have seen, are far from being perfect, but allow to recover some sovereignty about when and how to receive advertising. And in a saturated environment of messages, they are tools to take into account.
Images | Robinson list | Stop Advertising list | Freepik | Murat Ts.
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