Say goodbye to spam calls in South Africa – with a big catch for political parties and charities

• The National Consumer Commission has gazetted draft guidelines for the new national consumer opt-out registry for public comment.
• The draft guidelines clarify several questions that have arisen around the registry, including what constitutes direct marketing, and address questions around political parties and charities cold-calling consumers for donations.
• The guidelines specify that soliciting consumers for political support is not direct marketing, but soliciting donations may constitute direct marketing and fall within the Opt-Out Registry regime.