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LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

Starting September 16th, companies that make unsolicited telemarketing calls (or send promotional SMS or emails) to users who do not wish to receive them, may be fined up to 300 Tax Units (UIT), which is equivalent to S/. 1,065,000 soles, (approximately US $358,585 dollars) reported  Peru's National Institute for Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi).

According to this, the users that don't want to deal with these unsolicited calls, text message or emails can register five phone numbers (land lines or cell phones) and email addresses at the Indecopi webpage, called “Gracias... no insista" ("Thanks... do not insist.”)

This national-wide registration is absolutely free of any charge and is valid for two years, and may also be renewed for free. Moreover, people may withdraw from the list at any time.

According to the Consumer Protection Law, enterprises that use call centers or send massive text messages or emails will have to exclude from their recipients all the numbers and addresses already registered in Indecopi webpage.

Edwin Aldana, the Committee on Consumer Protection's Technical Secretary, said that at present there are three million land lines and over 21 million cell phones.

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