The Cellular Operators Association of India has written to the consumer affairs secretary seeking the notification of rules to regulate the menace of spam calls and messages.
In June 2024, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs released draft guidelines for the prevention and regulation of unsolicited and unwarranted business communication.
As per the industry body's letter, unsolicited business communications have become a growing menace for public at large and is a blatant invasion of consumer privacy.
COAI has highlighted that relentless marketing pitches also expose consumers to potential risks of sophisticated financial scams, and the present regulatory framework is not well equipped to handle the menace.
To support its point, the telecom operators' body flagged that OTT communication platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram presently fall outside the regulatory oversight, and that it becomes increasingly difficult to track such calls and block them.
Under the current dispensation, such communication is regulated only through the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation, 2018 (TCCCPR), which has been formulated under the TRAI Act, 1997. This is, however, an incomplete and therefore ineffective solution, as there are several entities in the ecosystem that are responsible for the unsolicited business communications that are outside the jurisdiction of TRAI.COAI Letter
According to COAI, this is a reactive approach that fails to address the root cause of the issue, and it has been noted that miscreants continue to exploit the system through innovative methods.
In addition, it has been stated that though the Department of Telecommunications has the authority to implement measures to safeguard users under the Telecom Act of 2023, it cannot take any direct action against individual users.
Therefore, COAI has said that notifying the June guidelines will empower the DoT, which would have both the jurisdiction and the capacity to take action against all deviant individuals, businesses, or platforms.
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