Congress passes for the last time this customer services law, which requires businesses to respond in less than three minutes – and on the ground with automatic challengers –, stops fake reviews on the Internet and prohibits them from influencers make known the apuestas. Known as the SAC law and promoted by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the initiative regulates practices it considers harmful to consumers, from what is known as spam until the automatic renewal of platform subscriptions streamingin addition to wide areas for resolving complaints. The text has passed its initial treatment in Congress and passed through the Senate, and now faces its final vote.
In the Senate, the main changes approved with enmiendas proposed by the PP, which had an absolute majority, were to extend the time limit for resolving complaints, from 15 to 30 days, and to reduce from 95% to 90% the minimum percentage of calls that must be contested in less than three minutes.
Another important change concerns customer service in official languages. Congress approved that consumers in cooperative language communities could be served in their language from any point in Spain, but the Senate limited this obligation. Based on the argument of the high cost this implies for businesses, the PP amended the text so that the use of these languages depends on the location of the company’s head office, rather than the place of residence of the customer. The removal of the obligation to train staff in official languages was also approved. Today, the House will vote on whether these changes stand, which will predictably be rejected. These are some of the main normative keys.
Stop “spam” calls
One of the points highlighted is action against telephone calls from spam. Companies must identify their commercial calls with a prefix and telephone operators will tend to block those who do not use this prefix and declare void all contracts made on unauthorized calls. The law has banned these intrusive calls since 2023, but companies continue to contact people under different pretexts because the user has given consent to accept cookies on a web page, which is a former client, who has not requested to delete their data from their records.
Last month, the Ministry of Digital Transformation launched an initiative to reduce these calls, thanks to which it ensures that 48 million of them were avoided in the first four months, but the main consumer organizations consider that this does not work: both the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) and the Facua have carried out surveys on them. demonstrated that there were more and more spam phone.
Faster phone service
The main new features of the text concern customer service services, where consumers call to receive information, complain or request after-sales service. When it comes into force, companies will be obliged to limit telephone waiting time to three minutes for at least 95% of calls (or up to 90% if the PP question is maintained), to shorten the deadline for resolving consultations to 15 days (or 30 days, as approved by the Senate) and to prohibit the exclusive use of automatic challengers or robots to respond to queries and requests. The standard establishes that when the consumer requests to speak to a person, the company guarantees it. You will also not be able to disconnect a call because the waiting time is too long. Los call centers companies with more than 250 workers and more than 50 million euros in billings will be able to respond to requests in the official languages (Catalan, Galician and Basque).
Digital Subscription Renewal Notice
Automatic renewal of subscriptions to the Services is prohibited. streaminglike Amazon, Spotify or Netflix. Companies must inform the user 15 days before the expiration of the term so that they have the opportunity to choose not to renew the service and communicate the expiration of this period and the consequences of not confirming the cancellation of the renewal. Currently, it often happens that this notice is not sent and that systematic renewals of non-required services are carried out.
This measure aims to prevent benefits or memberships from being extended to applications to which the consumer has forgotten to subscribe. So, in fixed-term but renewable contracts, customer service departments must provide sufficient notice so that customers can leave as quickly as possible.
Clearer management expenses
The new legislation also requires companies to include management expenses in the final price of inputs and services. Those who often appear at concerts at the last moment, when we have decided to buy and are getting ready to pay. The text requires that the full final price is always indicated, including taxes, deglossing in your case, the importation of surcharges or discounts applied to the offer and additional expenses, including possible management costs, which have repercussions on the consumer or user.
According to the law, the handling fee cannot exceed the additional costs incurred by the consumer when purchasing tickets for the same events or shows in person. You can also charge an additional fee for correcting spelling or typographical errors in the user’s name upon hiring. online. Likewise, it is prohibited to charge more for printing the entry, or receiving and storing it on the mobile.
Fake reviews prohibited
The initiative will attempt to ban fake reviews on the Internet. The spaces where consumers like bars, restaurants and hotels are useful when choosing where to go, but they can contain misleading information. Many businesses, especially those in the restaurant industry, fear receiving false reviews that damage their image. ranking and the perception of consumers who use them to decide which establishment to go to. The legal change proposed by Consumo will allow entrepreneurs to request the removal of a review when they believe that the person writing it does not use the service or that the comment is false. It also intends to prohibit the purchase of reviews, requiring it to be indicated whether it has been verified that the review was written by a real consumer and that it was written within 30 days of the purchase or visit.
It will be possible to provide tests demonstrating that an invoice presented in the notice has been manipulated; demonstrate that the prices you are referring to are not real; display lists of customers who believe that the person who posted the review did not use the service. Comments on sites such as TripAdvisor, LaFourchette or Booking or Amazon can be decisive in choosing one product or service over another. Consumo should therefore try to regulate them to ensure their veracity and to the extent that they harm tourism and hospitality.
“Influencers” cannot advertise bets
The standard also includes new restrictions on gambling advertising, which the Supreme Court issued in April last year because they had not been approved in the form of a law. Since then, people have started allowing famous people to influencers publicize messages and you can offer lucky bonuses to new customers. The SAC law plans to prohibit both aspects through an enmienda. In the meantime, the other restrictions that established the decree are maintained, such as the veto on advertising by betting houses during sports broadcasts, the ban on these brands sponsoring sports and the limitation of advertising on television, radio and YouTube in the time slot from 00:00 to 05:00 in the morning.
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