On June 29, the new General Telecommunications Law, known as the anti-SPAM law due to its article 66, came into force, prohibiting commercial calls without prior consent. Since then, not only have some users stopped receiving these calls, but the number of these calls has also increased, as our colleagues at Xataka Móvil explain in detail. The problem is that the law allows interpretation, and the key is so-called “pre-approval.”

“Unwanted” calls. The new law, passed in June 2022, clearly states that companies cannot make unsolicited commercial calls. The problem is that the concept of “unsolicited” is defined by “prior consent” specified in the General Communications Law; This is the only exception, whether operator-made calls or robocalls.

pre-approval. There are two points regarding user rights in the General Telecommunications Law; Here, pre-approval is referred to as explicit authorization to make spam calls. As the law states:

“[Los usuarios tenemos derecho]Not to receive automated calls or fax messages for commercial communications without human intervention, without your prior consent.

“[Los usuarios tenemos derecho]”Not to receive unsolicited calls for commercial communications unless the user has prior consent to receive such commercial communications.”

Pay attention to the “Accept” section on the forms. The confusion lies precisely in the forms that companies and platforms present to us when we sign up for them. There are usually two boxes that give us the option to check. The first is “I have read and accepted the terms of use” (or something similar), which we always need to enable because otherwise we will not even be able to complete the registration process.

Do not check the second box if you do not want spam. The second is the one containing “I accept commercial communications” (or a similar message), which we must tick to complete the process, but is not actually required. And when we check, we pre-consent to these commercial communications, which include spam calls. That’s the problem: we don’t need to check that box.

This second box is the one that we do not need to tick to prevent spam from being sent to email or to our mobile phone. If we do this, we will be giving “prior approval”. The warning message as seen in the picture is misleading; We can continue the process without selecting that box.

(Slightly) dark patterns. Here service providers make use of certain dark pattern techniques and show two boxes with the same design, which seem mandatory to complete the process, but the one dedicated to receiving commercial communications is always optional. Always. Some platforms even throw up confusing messages when trying to figure out whether the second trading dialog needs to be activated, as seen in the image above. We insist: You just need to activate the “I have read and accept the terms of the privacy policy” box (or similar message).

Legitimate interest, real nightmare. The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) stated that companies can also benefit from the concept of “legitimate interest”, which is a particularly problematic concept that has been subject to many interpretations.

“Users may receive them if they have previously given consent, or if the calling company can justify that its legitimate interest in making searches outweighs users’ right not to receive them and that they have not exercised their right to object.”

Even if we have not given prior approval, companies may offer us more than what was previously agreed. Think you have an electricity contract with company X? No problem, they offer you a discount with a new pricing plan. They claim it is for your benefit and thus circumvent the Law.

That’s why they’re calling you from England. Recently OCU uncovered the increasing issue of spam calls. This organization contacted the AEPD, but there is currently no solution to a problem that has an additional component: the General Telecommunications Act is only in force in Spain, causing many companies to spam calls with phone numbers. Like Germany or England.

But you can block them on your phone. Despite this indiscriminate onslaught of spam calls, users have a last resort to avoid them: activating the antispam filter available on both Android-based mobile phones and iPhones with iOS. You can block private numbers, sign up for the Robinson List, and even take advantage of third-party apps like TrueCaller or CallBlocker that allow you to better identify who’s calling you and block advertising numbers. You can also report it if you continue to receive spam calls.

Image | ExpressVPN

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