Advertisers want to be heard on the phone and sell their products well. But some calls should never have happened. The Federal Network Agency takes action against such unauthorized telephone advertising.
Whether it’s a competition or a supposedly cheap energy contract: last year, advertising calls from intrusive call centers once again angered tens of thousands of German citizens so much that they contacted the Federal Network Agency. The federal authority in Bonn announced that 34,714 complaints had been received about unauthorized telephone advertising. That was significantly fewer than in 2022, when the supervisory authority received 64,704 complaints, almost as many as in 2021.
Netzagentur boss Klaus Müller described the decline in the number of complaints as a “ray of hope”. The authority, which imposes fines for unauthorized telephone advertising, justified the development with its consistent work and the fact that many people are no longer working from home. This would mean they would not be disturbed when companies called landlines during the day and advertised services.
The decline may also be due to the fact that the network agency no longer mentions the culprit companies by name since they lost a legal dispute. As a result, the topic appears less often in the media, and many people are not reminded or even find out that they can complain to the network agency.
Advertising calls may only be made if those called have given their prior consent. The advertising consent can be revoked later – if the phone still rings afterwards, that is also a legal violation. A complaint can be made at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/telefonwerbung-beschwerde.
Higher fines imposed
While the number of complaints fell, the total amount of fines imposed by the Federal Network Agency for unauthorized telephone advertising increased. According to the information, last year it was 1.435 million euros – after 1.15 million euros in 2022. “Many companies are still not adhering to the legal requirements when making advertising calls,” said authority boss Müller. “This means that the Federal Network Agency had to impose particularly high fines in 2023.”
At the beginning of the phone call, the callers often pretended to be representatives of the energy supplier the caller already works with, or an employee of a comparison portal. This was an attempt to gain the trust of the person being called and to get them to reveal personal data, such as the meter number and meter reading. According to the network agency, such behavioral patterns became noticeable “in a serious form” last year.
Source: Stern
