New regulation of the “Do Not Call” Registry

On July 14, 2016, the National Data Protection Agency issued  Rule No. 17/2016 ( the “Rule”), effective as of July 29, 2016 ( the “Effective Date”), regulating Law No. 26,951 (the “Law”). As informed in our previous report (please see “New Argentine ‘Do Not Call’ Registry” in Marval News #142, of August 29, 2014, and “News about the ‘Do Not Call’ Registry” in Marval News #147, of February 26, 2015), the Law created the Argentine “Do Not Call” Registry (the “Registry”) allowing any individual or legal entity owner or authorized user of telecommunication services of any kind to apply for registration without costs to prevent telephone calls from companies advertising, offering, selling, giving or providing goods or services. Such Registry was regulated by Rule 3/2015 implementing the procedure to be included in the Registry as a registered owner or user of phone services, as well as the procedure that the companies must follow to gain access to the list of registered individuals or legal entities.

The Rule determines a one-year term for the registrations of the obliged subjects under the Law. Pursuant to this new regulation, such companies must renew their registrations within the last 45 (forty-five) days of the one-year term.

Those companies with registrations granted more than one year ago must request their renewal within 45 (forty-five) days as of the Effective Date.

Moreover, the Rule determines that the opening of the administrative proceedings related to complaints based on the companies’ breach of the Law must be performed on a monthly basis, depending on the quantity of claims per company.

When the number of complaints does not reach the amount determined by the Data Protection Agency to open  administrative proceedings on a given month, such complaints must be added to those filed in the foregoing months.