News About the “Do Not Call” Registry

On December 12, 2014, the Argentine Executive Branch issued Decree No. 2501/2014 (hereinafter, the “Decree”) regulating Law No. 26,951 (hereinafter, the “Law”). As informed in our previous report (please see “New Argentine ‘Do Not Call’ Registry” in Marval News #142, of August 29, 2014)), the Law created the Argentine “Do Not Call” Registry (hereinafter, the “Registry”) allowing any individual or legal entity owner or authorized user of telecommunication services of any kind to apply for registration without costs in order to prevent telephone calls from companies advertising, offering, selling, giving or providing goods or services.

The Decree extends the application of the Law to any local company hiring marketing campaigns conducted abroad but addressed to the Argentine market.

Moreover, companies performing direct advertising campaigns falling under the scope of the Law must consult the latest updated version of the list of registered owners or authorized users of phone services before launching the marketing campaign, as well as complying with the right to individuals’ blocking determined by the Argentine Personal Data Protection Law No. 25,326.

All companies must use an identifiable phone number for conducting the activities determined in the Law.

On January 16, 2015, the Argentine Personal Data Protection Authority -a governmental body which is part of the Argentine Ministry of Justice and Human Rights- (hereinafter, the “DPA”) issued Rule No. 3/2015 (hereinafter, the “Rule”) implementing the procedure to be included in the Registry as a registered owner or user of phone services, as well as the procedure the companies must follow to gain access to the list of registered individuals or legal entities.  

Pursuant to the Rule, the companies conducting marketing campaigns must check the list of registered owners or users of communications services every 30 days.

The DPA will keep a record of sanctions for non-compliance with the Law, containing information on the kind of infringement committed, the sanction applied in each case and the level of compliance thereto, as well as any other information that may be deemed relevant.

The Registry has been operating since January 2015 and has already received registration requests of owners and authorized users of phone services.