Unsolicited calls from marketing companies

Almost everybody is familiar with the situation when the phone rings and you suddenly realise you speak to a telemarketer, convincing you of the need for bamboo socks, or even worse, enticing you to make an incredibly profitable investment in the capital market. We have good news for you! Now you can easily avoid calls of such character.

The Office of Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation (the "Office") has been required to establish on its website a list of telephone numbers provided by subscribers or users to express disapproval of calls for direct marketing purposes (the "List"). This obligation on the Authority arises from Section 116(7) of the Electronic Communications Act.

The List established by the Authority is published on the website: https://www.nevyziadanevolania.sk/. By registering your telephone number on this list, you express your opposition to the telemarketing. The list itself is divided into 4 sections, but in this article we will only deal with the "Subscriber" section and the "Submitting a complaint" section to explain how to defend yourself against unsolicited telemarketing.

Section "Subscriber"

In this section you can register your phone number in the phone number list to prevent unsolicited marketing calls.

The procedure to register your phone number is very simple. On the web page next to the "Subscriber" section, click on the "Enter" icon. Once you have entered your phone number, just follow the steps by pressing the "Register" icon.

You then need to verify your phone number by calling the toll-free phone number on the screen.

After verifying your phone number, simply choose from 14 areas in which marketing companies operate and you do not want them to contact you to promote their products. Alternatively, you can select all 14 areas at once by checking the "all" box. In this case, you should not be contacted by any marketing company or other vendor who wants to conduct direct marketing via a phone call. Your last step is just to save your preferences.

You can always change the preferences in an almost identical way to registering your phone number. The only difference is when you enter your phone number, where you choose to log in rather than register. The subsequent procedure is identical .

Section "Submitting a complaint"

This section is for people who suspect that their phone number has been used for unauthorised direct marketing purposes (e.g. because they have already been registered on the list and have declined phone calls for direct marketing purposes). Unsolicited communications may be reported by a registered subscriber as well as by a non-registered subscriber who does not wish to register. After logging into this section and verifying their telephone number, a subscriber may report unsolicited communications to the Authority using the form provided. An unregistered subscriber may submit a notification via the Authority's email address: podnety@teleoff.gov.sk .

We very much appreciate the creation of the so-called Robinson List in terms of protection against unsolicited marketing communications. If you are bothered by unsolicited telemarketing calls and want to defend yourself against them, we strongly recommend that you register your telephone number on this list.