Bundesnetzagentur imposes maximum fines for unsolicited marketing calls
Year of issue 2024
Date of issue 2024.01.19
In 2023, the Bundesnetzagentur imposed fines totalling €1.435 million for unsolicited marketing calls compared with €1.15 million in 2022.
"Many companies are still not complying with the legal requirements when making telemarketing calls. This resulted in the Bundesnetzagentur having to impose particularly high fines in 2023,"
said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur. "One bright spot, however, is the fall in the number of complaints. This is also the result of the consistent approach taken by the Bundesnetzagentur against unwanted sales calls."
The reason for the high level of fines in 2023 are the many extreme cases of unsolicited marketing calls in which companies or their representatives deliberately ignore the statutory requirements. As in previous years, the majority of the proceedings were brought against companies operating in the energy market and against the call centres commissioned by them. In 2023, in proceedings for the energy sector alone, the Bundesnetzagentur imposed a fine of €285,000 in each of three proceedings and a fine of €275,000 in another.
A particular feature of these cases, apart from the high number of consumers as injured parties, was the fact that the actual reason for the call was often initially concealed. At the start of the conversation, the callers would pretend to be from the energy supplier of the person they were calling, or as a price comparison site, so as to gain the trust of the person called and subsequently request them to disclose personal data such as the meter number or meter reading. The Bundesnetzagentur is already aware of such patterns of behaviour from previous years, but they continued in a more serious form in 2023.
Trend towards more serious harassment and deliberate infringements
In 2023, the Bundesnetzagentur received a total of 34,714 complaints about unsolicited marketing calls. This is a clear decline when compared with the 64,704 complaints it received in 2022. The current number of complaints are at more or less the same level as in the years prior to 2018. Besides the Bundesnetzagentur's consistent approach, the change in people's lifestyle in the aftermath of the pandemic has also led to this encouraging result. People are once again active outside of the home, which has led to a further reduction in the frequency of unwanted calls.
In absolute figures, though, last year's number of nearly 35,000 complaints was still very high overall.
As in 2022, most of the complaints received were related to energy supply, for which about 5,600 complaints were submitted in 2023. This was followed by complaints relating to prize draws and construction products with around 5,400 and 5,300 complaints respectively.
The reports of cold calls showed a clear trend towards particularly severe harassment and infringements. The Bundesnetzagentur took steps against several, particularly conspicuous undertakings. These undertakings exerted pressure on the call recipients with repeated unsolicited marketing calls at close intervals, an aggressive telephone manner or deceptive manoeuvring and, in part, gave rise to several hundred or even a thousand complaints within a very short space of time.
Bundesnetzagentur conducts first proceedings for new transparency requirements
The Bundesnetzagentur also remained active in respect of the transparency rules for consent to telephone marketing, which have now been in force for about two years. The Fair Consumer Contracts Act created these new transparency requirements for marketing companies as from 1 October 2021. As a result, among other things, they also have an express obligation under national law to fully document and to retain any consent to telephone marketing. The Bundesnetzagentur had initially published detailed information about this to help advertising companies in implementing this rule in practice. In the administrative fine proceedings initiated in 2023 for unsolicited marketing calls, the Bundesnetzagentur is taking the opportunity to investigate any suspected violation of the new requirements as well as suspected unsolicited marketing calls. Breaches of the requirement to document and retain the documentation may incur fines of up to €50,000.
Reporting unsolicited marketing calls
In order to pursue unwanted sales calls the Bundesnetzagentur is dependent on the consumer providing information. Consumers can report unwanted marketing calls they have not consented to, or to which they have already stated their objection, to the Bundesnetzagentur (form only available in German): www.bundesnetzagentur.de/telefonwerbung-beschwerde. In order to take action against those responsible, the information provided should be as precise and detailed as possible.
Further information is available (in German) at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/telefonwerbung-schutz.