Spam Complaints from Customers under TRAI Scrutiny

[ABS News Service/17.06.2025]

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has observed that a large number of spam complaints are made by the customers against the business entities from whom the consumers have earlier purchased goods or services. On investigation, such business entities often claim that they possess the consent of the consumer for receiving commercial calls and messages.

Under the regulatory framework defined by the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018, an entity can make commercial communications to a consumer irrespective of his/her Do Not Disturb (DND) preferences provided the entity has taken explicit consent from the consumer. However, in many cases, these consents were collected through offline or unverifiable means, making it extremely difficult to ascertain their validity and genuineness. In several instances, consumers report that their mobile numbers have been acquired by the entities for this purpose through misrepresentation, deception, or unauthorized data-sharing practices.

TRAI has undertaken several innovative regulatory measures in recent years to curb such practices. These include allowing consumers to register complaints against unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) even without prior DND registration, and initiating large-scale disconnection of telecom resources being misused by the entities for spamming activities. However, verification of consent for commercial communication citing offline consent of consumer, remains a formidable challenge.

To address the issue, the regulations provide for acquiring consent digitally by the entities and registering them in a secure and interoperable digital consent registry maintained by the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) for easy verification of consents while commercial communication is made to the consumers. However, for successful operation of this consent registration framework, onboarding of entities sending commercial communications is a necessary requirement.

Accordingly, to begin the national roll-out, TRAI has launched a Pilot Project in coordination with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) involving select banks and has issued a Direction on 13^th June, 2025, to all the Telecom Service Providers, mandating them to pilot this framework in collaboration with banks. Given the sensitivity of banking transactions and cases of financial frauds through spam calls, the banking sector has been prioritized for the first phase of implementation. This Pilot, running under a Regulatory Sandbox framework, will validate the operational, technical, and regulatory aspects of the enhanced Consent Registration Function (CRF) and lay the foundation for sector-wise scaling of the digital consent ecosystem.

TRAI remains committed to safeguarding consumer interest and enhancing trust in legitimate commercial communications. The Authority will continue to work with sectoral regulators and stakeholders to ensure that the ecosystem evolves towards more secure, transparent, and consumer-centric practices.