Date approaches for end to unwanted telephone operator sales calls

Millions of consumers in Spain will breathe a sigh of relief as the General Telecommunications Law looks likely to end most unsolicited commercial calls from telecommunications companies from 1 July.

The regulation stipulates that for a telecommunications operator to make calls for commercial purposes, it must either have the prior consent of the recipient or prove that it has a legitimate interest under data protection law (eg. for a previously requested contractual proposal or in the case of obligations imposed by law, public interest or the user's own vital interest).

From the entry into force of this regulation, it will be essential for users to be extremely careful when communicating with telecommunications operator, whether by telephone or through digital channels, as the request for consent to receive commercial calls may be made during the conversation or included in the privacy policy which must be accepted in order to receive information.

If, despite not having such consent or interest, a consumer receives sales calls, they can proceed to file a complaint. To this end, consumer rights group ADECES recommends taking due note of the date and time of the call, as well as any other information that may facilitate the subsequent complaint.