With the annoying call of offers, companies have utrum. The excuses to a random number end

Telemarketing cannot be done without active consent

When the Senate returned the amendment to the Electronic Communications Act to the Chamber of Deputies at the end of July, it seemed to have buried it, as the deputies did not have time to discuss it before the elections. In the end, however, the norm got on the agenda of probably the last pre-election meeting of the Chamber of Deputies, and the deputies re-approved it. If the amendment is also signed by the President, the changes will take effect in January 2022. This will implement the European Code into Czech law, strengthen consumer protection and unify it within the European market.

For example, the amendment introduces stricter rules for telemarketing. In contrast to the current approach, where the participant had to express that he did not wish to be contacted for marketing purposes (opt-out), the activity is transferred to those participants who care about this type of communication (actively expresses consent as in the case of customer or discount cards), ie on the principle of opt-in, otherwise this contact will not be allowed. It will only be possible to contact a participant if there is a specific record of him / her in the list of participants with information about his / her wish to be contacted for marketing purposes. The same applies to the provision of information services on numbers.

In translation, this means that the company will no longer be able to contact the subscriber on the basis of a “randomly generated number”, to which companies often make excuses if the called party objected to where the company obtained telephone contact.

The amendment should strengthen consumer rights

This will automatically assume that marketing calls cannot be made because the participant does not want them. Foreign companies targeting Czech consumers will also have to comply with this legislation. At the same time, there is no need to worry that consumers may no longer be called, for example, by a doctor or entrepreneur from whom the consumer regularly takes goods or services, she stated Eduarda Hekšová, director of the consumer organization dTest. As Hekšová added, a doctor, service provider, seller of goods and others have the option of “calling” their clients treated under the rules of personal data protection, usually with the consent of the client.

The approved change will ensure better provability. And thus the possibility of punishing possible violations of the law, which will clearly strengthen the position of Czech consumers. Undoubtedly, there will also be a certain cultivation of the business environment and its settlement for companies that do not abuse today’s unacceptable practices, joined Lukáš Zelený, member of the Board of the Czech Telecommunication Office.

The opt-in principle also applies to website operators

However, the opt-in principle is not only implemented for telemarketing, but also for websites. According to experts, the current form of cookie bars will not be enough. These now generally operate in opt-out mode, which allows site operators to access the user’s device relatively freely until the user expresses their disapproval.

However, the user will now have to give a demonstrable prior consent to the use of cookies and other technologies. For this purpose, it will be necessary to prepare the text of consents and a list of third parties to whom data from cookies are passed, for example, for marketing purposes. From a technical point of view, it will be necessary to provide a cookie bar solution, either your own or a commercial solution. Furthermore, it will be necessary to adjust the information on processing, in particular to take into account the processing in connection with cookies, the consents collected and the transfer of personal data to third parties, specified Michal Nulíček, partner of the law firm ROWAN LEGAL.