Telemarketing: tighter regulations come into force today. New rules on call centres and contracts concluded over the phone: what’s changing
Customers will no longer be contacted by electricity and gas companies without their explicit consent. According to Codacons, today “marks the start of a revolution for consumers, affecting both the odious phenomenon of telemarketing and online shopping”.
From today, electricity and gas suppliers will no longer be able to contact consumers without their explicit consent. This is one of the new measures introduced as part of the crackdown on telemarketing set out in Bollette Decree. The measure, which aims to protect citizens from aggressive and unfair commercial practices, was passed into law last April after completing the legislative process, first in the Chamber of Deputies and then in the Senate.
For the time being, the measures only apply to the energy sector: the section of the Excise Duties Decree which provided for the extension of the rule to the telecommunications sector has been removed by the Government, which has taken on board the observations made by the President of the Republic regarding the lack of consistency in certain provisions, such as the one on telemarketing.
What’s changing
The new regulations prohibit call centres from concluding energy contracts over the telephone unless the consumer initiates the call or explicitly asks to be contacted. Call centres, therefore, must limit themselves to providing information during calls but will no longer be able to have contracts signed; such contracts will be deemed null and void without the user’s specific consent to be contacted.
The measure had become necessary to curb the spread of unfair and harassing practices. Despite the anti-spoofing filter introduced by Agcom onNovember 2025 – which, in its first 11 days of operation, blocked over 49 million fraudulent calls from Italian mobile numbers, accounting for approximately 56% of all calls from mobile networks with Italian numbers – the phenomenon had not ceased.
A ‘consumer revolution’
With the introduction of these regulations, Codacons explains, ‘a revolution for consumers is underway, affecting both the odious phenomenon of telemarketing and online shopping’. The association points out that “a number of measures introduced last April under the Utility Bills Decree, which aim to protect consumers from aggressive telemarketing. Electricity and gas suppliers wishing to send commercial messages or offer supply contracts over the telephone may only do so if the customer has given their express consent’.
