Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications Initiates Best Practices Agreement for Reducing Cold Calling in Mobile Sector
Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITL) initiated an agreement of best practices to reduce cold calls in the mobile sector and improve protection of consumers’ privacy. This best practices agreement is a self-regulation act of the mobile sector.
Self-regulation of cold calls was recommended by the Economic Affairs Committee of Estonian Parliament a few years ago. Best practices agreement is initiated and maintained by the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
Mobile operators who signed the best practices agreement said that they will adhere to it, and called other companies who use telemarketing to honor the principles set forth by the agreement.
Main points of the agreement on best practices of cold calls:
Allkirjastatud müügikõnede hea tava kokkuleppe põhilised punktid:
- Mobile carriers may make unsolicited sales calls only to those people who have given their consent for receiving such calls.
- Mobile carriers may inform their customers and users about special offers via phone, but they may not make random sales calls to other people (including customers of other operators), who have not given their consent for receiving such calls.
- Cold calls can be made to business customers for selling services, but only if the receiver’s number is publicly available (i.e. via Business Registry or customer’s website).
The agreement was signed by Chris Robbins, CEO of Tele2 Estonia, Dan Strömberg, CEO of Telia Estonia, and Sami Seppänen, CEO of Elisa Estonia. Telia stopped cold calling on May 25, Telia and Elisa will do the same on June 23.
Cold calls have been banned or strongly regulated in almost all European Union member countries. If cold calls are not completely banned, service providers use other sales channels that provide better customer experience for making offers and keeping the competition active.
According to a recent survey by Kantar Emor, two-thirds of Estonian people have received cold calls during last months, and 85% have a negative opinion about unsolicited calls.