Trai leash on cold calls: Customer consent made mandatory, spam offenders face stricter action

The telecom regulator has tightened the leash on unsolicited commercial calls (UCC), making verifiable customer consent mandatory for calls triggered by enquiries to e-commerce and e-service providers.

Under amendments to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018, a customer’s enquiry can be used to make commercial calls for only seven days. The enquiry must be made in writing or digitally and preserved by the sender in a verifiable form, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said on Friday.