Nationwide crackdown on nuisance calls

The media reported in late July that national authorities will start a crackdown on nuisance calls through December 2019.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will team up with 12 other ministry-level agencies, including the Ministry of Public Security and the Supreme People’s Court, in this drive.

Nuisance calls have become rampant in China as many mobile phone users are bombarded daily with such calls.

The crackdown mainly targets industries such as finance and real estate. A study on telemarketing in the domestic insurance industry suggests 30 percent call center staff make 60 to 80 outbound calls per day and another 13 percent make a shocking 150.

This might explain why financial institutions will be among the first to feel the impact of the crackdown.

Telemarketing call centers are also required, from now on, to operate only during “reasonable” hours of the day and avoid making a second call after the first failed attempt. However, the definition of “reasonable hours” and whether the first-time offenders will be tolerated are open to interpretation, and the authorities need to clarify.