Italy: The New Opposition Register and the draft Telemarketing Code of Conduct

The Opposition Register is a tool set up by the Ministry of Economic Development to request the blocking of phone calls by telemarketing operators, but also of calls made with automatic recording discs and systems. It was introduced in 2010 for fixed telephones and was extended to mobile numbers on 13 April.

Telemarketers will therefore have to stop making calls within 15 days. All companies in the sector will then be obliged to consult the opposition register and remove all those telephone numbers from their contact list.

The regulation also applies to call centres located abroad, although, as they operate from outside the country, it will be difficult to make them subject to any sanctions.

To ensure proper compliance with the new Register of Oppositions and the European Privacy Regulation (GDPR) in general, a Code of Conduct designed for telemarketing and teleselling is being drawn up.

Article 40 of the GDPR provides for the development of codes of conduct intended to contribute to the correct application of the regulations, according to the specificities of the various processing sectors and the specific needs of companies. These are voluntary accountability instruments, which set data protection standards for specific processing activities or for specific subjects.

On the basis of this rule, the Associations representing clients, call centres, telemarketers, list providers and consumer associations have drawn up, under the guidance of the Privacy Authority, a Draft Code of Conduct for telemarketing and teleselling activities.

The Draft Code of Conduct proposes to support all those who, as principals or suppliers of direct or ancillary services, carry out telemarketing and teleselling activities, favouring compliance with the regulations on the processing of personal data and promoting virtuous conduct along the entire supply chain, also in order to strengthen people's trust in telephone promotional activities.

Adherence to the Code of Conduct is voluntary and is open to all those who carry out personal data processing activities to promote and/or offer goods or services through the telephone channel.

In order to submit the Code of Conduct to the prior approval of the Data Protection Authority, the Code of Conduct has been put out for public consultation and it is therefore possible to make comments until 9 September 2022.