Government to ban contracting of energy supplies by telephone, unless at the customer's request

The proposal is included in a draft royal decree in Spain that aims to "strengthen consumer protection" by tightening the regulations against unwanted commercial calls

E. Martínez

Madrid

Sunday, 25 August 2024, 23:27

Energy companies in Spain will be prohibited from agreeing to electricity and gas supply contracts with their customers by telephone, as they currently do, unless the customer requests it, if a draft royal decree is passed. The aim is to put a stop to abuses by energy suppliers over the phone, according to El País newspaper and subsequently confirmed by SUR.

The measure was first proposed back in April by Spain's National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) that in its latest report on retail energy markets warned of the "numerous complaints" received by the watchdog from consumers who had received misleading marketing calls from many energy suppliers, resulting in supply contracts being agreed that had not actually been requested. In response to this recommendation, the Ministry of Ecological Transition is now including this measure in the General Supply and Contracting Regulation, a draft royal decree open to public consultation until 13 September.

The text published on the ministry's website states that the aim is to "strengthen consumer protection". According to the draft decree, the marketing company "may not carry out advertising or contracting practices not requested by the user over the telephone, unless there is an express request from the consumer or the call is made on the consumer's own initiative". Furthermore, in cases where it is the customer who decides to contract by telephone, the company "must record the entire call, regardless of who originated it, including all the information provided to the consumer and, where appropriate, the pre-contractual information with the basic characteristics of the offer".

In the CNMC report it is mentioned that these practices were used a lot by those contracting for domestic supplies (known as cold-calling contracting), which was used to attract customers in the past and which was banned in 2018. Even though the General Telecommunications Law - in force since June 2023 - establishes the right of people "not to receive unwanted calls for commercial purposes", this law does not prohibit the contracting by phone of any service. As a result, many energy companies have taken advantage of this legal loophole. This is why the competition watchdog asked Teresa Ribera's ministry for a "stricter regulation".

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