Legislation For Protection Of Telephone Services Users From Abuses With Respect To Contacting, Publicity, Sales & Offer Of Unsolicited Goods & Services

On June 30th, 2017, the Executive Power in Paraguay passed on Law No. 5830, which protects phone services users from unwanted or unsolicited publicity, contact and offer of goods and services, a modality which has become very frequent in Paraguay. In effect, currently, many individuals and corporations, including big pharmacy chains, perfumeries, banks, mobile phone companies and financial institutions, send text messages to mobile phone owners massively, offering their goods and services, which is not only annoying to consumers, but which also demonstrates that our data is exposed and available to the public.

The objective of Law No. 5830 is the protection of owners and authorized users of telephone services from the abuses with respect to the procedures of contact, publicity, offer, sales and giving-away of unrequested goods and services. For said purpose, the Law establishes a National Registry within the Office of Consumer Defense (SEDECO) before which the consumers and users may request their registration in order to impede that providers make commercial contacts by means of their mobile phone numbers. Such registration is free of charge.

In order to verify that the data provided by the users is accurate, the Office of Consumer Defense shall have its own database, according to information provided by the Mobile Phone Companies in Paraguay.

The "PROVIDERS" (the individuals or corporations that perform commercial, manufacturing, import, distribution activities) shall verify the Register before sending any commercial messages to a given number of users or consumers, except when: the commercial contact have been performed within the framework of a current contractual relation between the consumer and the provider; or the commercial contact has been expressly authorized by the consumer.

The violation of the law is subject to investigation by the Authority of Application, the Office of...