The Consumer Affairs Secretary, Nidhi Khare, recently said that new guidelines will soon be released to help protect consumers from annoying spam calls and messages. Back in June, the Department of Consumer Affairs shared draft guidelines to tackle the issue of unwanted promotional calls and text messages.
Khare explained that the department has been working on this problem and has consulted with various groups, including the telecom industry. The goal is to ensure that consumers' interests are prioritised while giving the telecommunications regulator the necessary authority to implement changes.
The telecom industry has requested clear guidelines to protect consumers under the Consumer Protection Act. Khare assured that the department is actively working on this and will announce the guidelines shortly. Recently, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents telecom companies, urged the department to finalize these guidelines.
The draft guidelines define "business communication" as messages regarding goods or services, distinguishing them from personal messages. It also states that any communication that doesn't respect the recipient's preferences or consent will be considered unwanted. Additionally, communications that violate existing telecom rules regarding commercial messages will be prohibited.
The aim is to protect consumers from unwanted marketing calls, especially from businesses that are not registered. While a 'Do Not Disturb' registry has been somewhat effective against registered telemarketers, calls from unregistered numbers remain a significant issue.
These draft guidelines are designed to shield consumers from intrusive and unwelcome marketing practices. Although the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) introduced final rules to combat spam calls in 2018, they have recently issued new directions to strengthen these regulations. The TRAI has set a deadline of December 11 to establish a method for tracking messages and to stop any non-compliant messages from being sent.
