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Consumer Affairs Minister Nidhi Khare recently said that new guidelines will be released soon to help protect consumers from annoying spam calls and messages. In June, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs shared draft guidelines to tackle the problem of unwanted promotional calls and text messages.
Khare explained that the department has been working on this issue and consulting with various groups, including the telecom industry. The aim is to ensure that consumer interests are prioritized while at the same time giving the telecommunications market regulator the necessary authority to implement changes.
The telecom sector has called for 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 soon. Recently, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents telecom companies, urged the department to finalize these guidelines.
The draft guidelines define “business communications” as messages about goods or services, and distinguish them from personal messages. It also states that any communication that does not respect the recipient’s preferences or consent will be considered unwanted. In addition, communications that violate existing telecom rules regarding commercial messages will be prohibited.
The aim is to protect consumers from unwanted marketing calls, especially from companies that are not registered. While a Do Not Disturb registry is somewhat effective against registered telemarketers, calls from unregistered numbers remain a major problem.
These draft guidelines are intended to protect consumers against intrusive and undesirable marketing practices. While 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 set up a method for tracking messages and preventing non-compliant messages from being sent.