Monthly Monitoring Report No.9/2022: Unsolicited marketing calls and other recommendations from the Office; thousand of attendees trained on TELCO topics

Prague, 23 September 2022 – In our September monitoring report, we address the issue of contact for marketing purposes and withdrawal of consent. We also look at the activities of our lecturers in the Telecommunication Academy over the last six months. We also provide information about the decisions issued on the net costs from providing universal services to Czech Post for 2018-2020.

Although the new rules for marketing contact apply, where a subscriber must explicitly agree on being contacted on a public directory that meets the legal requirements, the Office is aware that most consumers are unsure whether and when they have given their consent. Thus, the Office informs consumers and advises them of ways they can verify, withdraw, or change their consent. A barrier for the average consumer may be that they do not know how to draw up such a document if they want to withdraw their consent. We therefore provide a simple guidance on what should not be missing in the document. The Office also recommends subscribers the fastest solution when they receive a call and find out that it is a marketing contact.

The year 2022 marked the resumption of activities for the Telecommunication Academy project after the decline in demand related to the covid-19 pandemic. 48 lectures took place in the first half of this year, training a total of 992 participants. New lectures include the Internet and online platforms, while there is also interest in classic topics such as the Postal Service and the Colour Lines. Number of educational videos is also growing, a new video on Sharenting has been published and can be viewed here.

The Office has successfully completed the notification process with European Commission, which has confirmed in its decision, that the expected compensation of net costs for Česká pošta s.p. in total amount of CZK 7.5 billion for the period 2018 – 2022 constitutes state aid compatible with internal market.  

Press Unit
Czech Telecommunication Office
Barbora Havelková