Spanish government will declare all contracts agreed via unsolicited or spam calls void

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs will put a stop to the so-called 'spam' calls that people in Spain receive on a daily basis. The head of the department, Pablo Bustinduy, announced a regulatory change that will prevent these types of unsolicited and unwanted commercial communications by obliging companies to identify their numbers with a specific "prefix". Consequently, telephone providers will be obliged to block all companies that do not use it.

The reform, "which is facing its last phase of parliamentary processing and which will soon be voted on by Congress, will be a milestone in the defence of consumers", said Bustinduy. In addition, another measure that the ministry is implementing involves the "declaring null and void all contracts deriving from a non-consensual commercial call, to discourage this business model and therefore stop companies from engaging in these practices which cause so much inconvenience to the public".

Bustinduy is confident that the law, with the new amendments agreed between the PSOE and Sumar left-wing parties, will be approved by parliament and that companies will "respect" it. The aim is to put a stop to the sale of products and services by telephone - something that the general telecommunications law, in force since June 2023, has already attempted.

According to the law, the right "not to receive unwanted calls for commercial communication purposes, unless the user has given his or her prior consent" has already been established. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs will join forces with the Ministry of Digital Transformation to ensure that companies do not circumvent the law, which will only apply to "calls made within Spain".

As Bustinduy stated, the new regulation seeks to "bring order and guarantee the right of consumers to live in peace, which is no small thing". To achieve this, the government will rely on "technology".

"The telecommunications companies have enough technology to be able to identify it," the minister said. "In the event that a telephone line associated with a company is making a commercial call that does not use this code, the telecommunications companies will block it immediately."

In case of non-compliance with the new rule, sanctions will be applied. "No company can be above the law or untouchable. Consumers' rights must be respected. Consumers are not defenceless and public regulation and the denunciation of abusive practices are key to more democratic, fairer and more transparent commercial relations."

To finalise contracts offered by telephone, consumers must have given prior consent to receive such calls, and that approval will be valid for a maximum of two years. Once that period has passed, companies must renew the consent, "because everyone has at some point ticked a box to receive commercial calls, but that cannot be an authorisation with no expiry date", as Bustinduy said. "This is not a minor thing, because what we are talking about is preventing business models that are based on undermining consumers' right to time, wellbeing or privacy."

Other measures presented in the amendment include voiding the automatic renewal of subscriptions, which means "that consumers must be informed 15 days before renewing a contract and can decide whether they wish to keep their subscription"; the bans on false reviews; transparency of management costs in the purchase of tickets reflected in the final price; maximum waiting time of three minutes in customer services and the "right to be assisted by a person at any time during the process when requested".