Measures demanded against advertising calls
Various consumer organizations are declaring war on unwanted advertising calls. They are calling on telecoms providers to respect the asterisk entry in the telephone directory. If nothing is done by the end of April, the law will have to be tightened.
Despite the ban on advertising and marketing for connections with an asterisk entry in the telephone directory in force since 2012, numerous consumers continue to be harassed by advertising callers. The threat of a prison sentence of up to three years does not seem to deter telephone advertisers. Consumer advocates, including the French-speaking Swiss organization FRC, are once again drawing attention to this abuse. In most cases, it is extremely difficult to identify the caller. The call centers of the troublemakers are often located abroad - even if a Swiss number usually lights up on the customer's display, the FRC and its sister organizations announced on Monday.
The solution to the problem has been on the table for some time. Telecom providers have been able to use technical means to block illegal calls for months without any problems. Nevertheless, nothing is being done by the major network operators, write the consumer advocates. This gives the impression that telecoms providers are not taking their customers' criticism seriously.
Thousands of complaints
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) takes a less gloomy view of the current situation. The law, which came into force in 2012, is bearing fruit: unsolicited advertising calls and other unfair business practices have led to over 12,000 complaints to the federal authorities within two years, it said in May last year. In this context, Seco filed 62 complaints. In addition, a total of 121 companies were warned. According to Seco, they were made aware of the breach of the law in writing. Around half of these companies have changed their criticized business conduct. (SDA)
