Heavy fine will be imposed on unwanted promotional calls

This would be the first time that penalties have been proposed against telecom companies for violating privacy and violating consumer rights.

Unregistered numbers refer to all 10-digit phone numbers owned by individuals and commonly used by firms to make promotional calls and send commercial messages.

Also read: Pesky callers have had a free hand for too long. he’s probably about to finish

The decision has been taken following a stakeholders’ meeting held last week, attended by representatives of the Department of Telecommunications, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Bharat Sanchal Nigam Limited (BSNL), Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio, which all agreed These are to follow the norms issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), which reports to the Department of Consumer Affairs (DOCA).

The rules will be notified as ‘Guidelines for Unwanted and Inappropriate Business Communications 2024’.

According to the draft guidelines, companies benefiting from inappropriate calls made by commission agents associated with banks, insurance companies and real estate firms will be held liable under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act and face penalties.

Here, ‘call makers’ refers to commission agents associated with various banks, insurance companies and real estate firms who make calls on behalf of these firms to promote their services.

Additionally, telecom operators will have to show the identity of each such caller, including their name and area, so that consumers can decide whether to take that call or reject it, the draft guidelines said.

It said that the calls made by the government will be through a specific series and the ministry will inform people about this series so that individuals can answer these calls and get the latest updates about government schemes.

“Unfair or unwanted commercial communications is a deceptive and unfair trade practice under sections 2(28) and 2(47) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019,” the first person said, requesting anonymity.

The proposed guidelines will ban all inappropriate calls that violate the number ranges prescribed by TRAI as well as consumer consent and registered preferences.

The proposed guidelines will also fix the responsibility of all telecom service providers to prevent unethical business practices and take necessary action including punitive measures against violators.

The second person said major entities like banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies and others were advised by CCPA to follow the upcoming guidelines aimed at curbing unwanted promotional calls.

peppermint It was first reported on March 4 that the CCPA was preparing to introduce guidelines under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, which would include them in the unfair trade practices mentioned in the Act.

Also read: Getting spam calls, WhatsApp messages? This is how the Center is planning to fight them.

The outline of the draft guidelines was discussed with stakeholders in a meeting chaired by Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare and most of them expressed their consent to the proposed norms, the second person said.

The draft guidelines define key terms with clarity and provide illustrative examples for better understanding. They emphasize that these guidelines should complement existing laws without diluting them.

According to an Airtel spokesperson, Airtel has developed Spam Protection, a solution using data science and AI to help banks deal with phishing, spam and fraudulent messages. Working with leading banks, Airtel has reduced spam by nearly 98%, blocked over 160,000 fraudulent templates, and removed over 8,000 SMS headers, reducing spam messages by 2% per day. There has been a significant reduction of over million to almost zero.

Additionally, the draft lists various forms of communication that will be considered unsolicited and inappropriate such as making commercial calls from numbers registered in a person’s name, shadow calling, among others.

Shadow calling refers to a practice where telemarketers use a technology that displays a different number on the recipient’s caller ID than the actual number from which the call originated.

Queries sent to the Consumer Affairs Secretary, TRAI Chairman, BSNL CMD, Telecom Ministry spokesperson, Vodafone and Reliance Jio on Monday did not elicit any response.

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Published: May 14, 2024, 05:51 PM IST