New Delhi: Relief may be in sight for Indian consumers plagued by unwanted calls and messages. The Department of Consumer Affairs is set to introduce new guidelines aimed at curbing the surge of unsolicited commercial communications, often referred to as “pesky calls.”
Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare announced the upcoming guidelines at a recent Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event. This initiative follows draft guidelines released in June, which sought to address the issue of promotional calls and messages bombarding consumers.
Khare emphasized the collaborative effort involved in developing these guidelines, stating, “The Department of Consumer Affairs had started working on prevention of pesky calls, and we had to engage with all the stakeholders in this.” This includes coordinating with the Department of Telecommunications and considering input from the telecom industry to ensure consumer protection under the Consumer Protection Act.
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The move comes after the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) urged the department to finalize the guidelines. These guidelines define “business communication” and outline rules for obtaining consumer consent, managing preferences, and complying with existing regulations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
A key objective of these guidelines is to tackle the problem of unregistered marketers using private numbers to bypass TRAI’s 2018 regulations on commercial messages. The ministry acknowledged the effectiveness of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ registry for registered telemarketers but highlighted the need to control communication from unregistered sources.
Despite TRAI’s efforts in 2018 and further directives issued this year, pesky calls and messages persist. The regulator has set a deadline of December 11th to implement stricter mechanisms for tracing messages and preventing the transmission of non-compliant communications. The new guidelines from the Department of Consumer Affairs will further strengthen the fight against this consumer nuisance.
