Telephone advertising to existing customers: consent, withdrawal and UWG risk

An advertising call is communication intended to promote the sale of goods or services. It may involve an offer, discount, contract renewal or the opening of a further business opportunity. Section 174 paragraph 1 of the Austrian Telecommunications Act 2021 requires the prior consent of the person called for this form of direct marketing.

The rule follows the advertising purpose and the communication channel. The fact that a person has already bought something, is a member or has an ongoing contract does not automatically permit an additional advertising call. The business needs a reliable consent for the specific telephone advertising or must avoid the call.

Consent cannot be obtained only after the call has begun. Calling to ask for permission for a later sales conversation already starts the promotional contact. The approval process must therefore make the consent record available before the call.

The specific record matters for release. It should show the wording of the consent, the time, the person or number, the advertising purpose and the scope of the approval. A general customer database or a note saying “existing customer” does not show when and for what purpose telephone advertising was permitted.

The record must match the planned campaign. Consent to receive information about a specific contract does not automatically cover a later sales call for other services. Consent for one contact cannot be transferred to a continuing series of calls without further review.

The consent should be stored so that call centres, sales teams and agencies receive only the contacts that are actually approved. Changes to consent, suppression records and the list used for each campaign belong in a traceable chronology.

Consent for telephone advertising can be withdrawn at any time. A withdrawal may reach the business through the call, email, a form or a service team. The important point is that its content is recorded clearly and assigned to the correct number or person.

After withdrawal, further advertising contact must stop. The suppression record therefore cannot remain only in the original seller’s CRM. It must reach every system that creates call lists, triggers follow-up contacts or supplies data to an external call centre.

A later contact may concern objectively necessary contract information or support. That must be distinguished from an additional sales offer. The reason, content and initiating team should be recorded for the individual situation.

Existing customers are often contacted about delivery, a question or a contract change. Such conversations may serve contract administration. Once the contact also contains a new offer, discount or purchase incentive, that part requires a separate advertising review.

Calling something a service call does not decide its content. The script, reason, audience, product reference and actual conversation matter. Businesses should therefore use separate approval paths and scripts for service and sales.

Email and text messages follow different statutory requirements, including a narrow exception for own similar products sent to existing customers. The article on email advertising and consent explains that electronic communication. Its exception cannot be transferred to telephone advertising.

The Telecommunications Act protects against unsolicited advertising calls. The UWG can open a separate review. Item 26 of the UWG Annex refers to persistent and unwanted solicitation of consumers by telephone and other distance communication. The contact history must be assessed in context.

A clear refusal, later calls, changing numbers or several service providers may together show persistence. The number of contacts alone is not decisive. The advertising purpose, clarity of the refusal, timing and internal response to the suppression request are also relevant.

The content of a call may additionally be reviewed as an aggressive commercial practice under section 1a UWG. Threats, unlawful pressure or a material impairment of decision-making can change the assessment. The communication should be preserved in its original form with a factual chronology.

If a complaint arrives, the article on a UWG cease and desist letter from a competitor or association explains how documents and possible claim directions should be separated. An injunction or interim relief requires its own review of claim, evidence and risk of repetition.

Outsourcing telephone advertising still requires clear campaign control. The contract, brief, consent file, suppression list and list actually supplied for calling should fit together. A general assurance from the service provider does not replace review of the specific data transfer.

Useful records include scripts, consent records, call times, displayed numbers, call notes and the version of the calling list. After a withdrawal, the file should show when suppression was recorded and which systems received it.

Original data states should remain available in a dispute. A cleaned export created later may hide the decisive chronology. The topic on injunctions and interim relief explains evidence, repetition risk and the possible protective objective. The advertising claims review can also organise statements and evidence used in a campaign.