Telemarketing

Information required in telemarketing

With telemarketing, the seller must provide you with the information below clearly and comprehensibly during the call (and not just refer you to the information provided elsewhere):

• the aim of the call
• the name of the salesperson
• the name of the business
• the seller’s relationship to the business (whether they are an employee or are operating on behalf of the operator).

Prior to entering into an agreement, the operator or retailer must, by law, clearly and comprehensively inform you of the following details:

• Their name, address, company registration number, telephone number and email address The retailer must provide details for both itself and the operator
• The key attributes of the service
• The total price of the service, including taxes and fees, or how the price will be calculated on an ongoing basis if it cannot be given in advance.
• If the agreement is to run until further notice, the price should be given per invoicing period.
• If invoicing does not take place monthly, the monthly price should also be given.
• Delivery costs and any other costs, such as invoicing fees. Please note that if the company fails to inform you of any costs arising, by law you are not obliged to pay them, and you can also demand that any such costs already paid be refunded.
• Methods of payment, means of delivery, delivery term (the latest date by which the delivery should arrive), delivery restrictions.
• The fact that you are entitled by law to make a complaint for three years (deadline for making a complaint), how to make a complaint, and the postal address this should be sent to.
• The terms of the right of withdrawal: if a right of withdrawal exists or not, the withdrawal deadline, the conditions under which the right exists, what conditions apply if you change your mind and wish to withdraw, what you should do if you change your mind and wish to withdraw, and the fact that you can use the withdrawal form provided by the Consumer Agency or an equivalent to withdraw and how you can find and use it.
• The costs you may be obliged to pay to make use of the right of withdrawal for return shipping, depreciation in value for used products or the part of the service you have used.
• The codes of conduct applicable to the company’s operations and how you can find and view them. For example, you should receive information about the Swedish Telecom Advisors’ conduct of business rules if purchasing a service provided by an operator that is part of the Swedish Telecom Advisors.
• The contractual commitment period and notice period. If the agreement is valid until further notice or is renewed automatically, you should be provided with information on the conditions for terminating the agreement.
• How digital content works, what technical safety measures have been used and what hardware and software is required to use the digital content (if applicable in your case).
• Options for resolution of the dispute outside the courts.

You should be provided with the information in a clear and comprehensible way, which means it should be given to you in a way that is easy for you to review and understand.

The seller must pay particular attention to the needs of persons considered particularly vulnerable due to reduced mental, physical, or psychological performance capacity; age; or a level of credulity that the seller could reasonably be expected to foresee. This is also stated in the Swedish Telecoms Advisors’ conduct of business rules.

• Please note The withdrawal deadline of 14 days is extended up to a maximum of one year if you are not informed of your right of withdrawal correctly in accordance with the law. This extension applies where the information on the right of withdrawal was incomplete, erroneous, missing entirely or not provided correctly. In the event of a dispute, the burden lies on the company to prove that the correct information on the right of withdrawal was provided.

Confirmation

In instances of telemarketing, you should be provided with a confirmation of what was agreed during the call; there are two kinds of confirmation – confirmation of offer and confirmation of agreement.

Confirmation of offer

If an operator contacts you by telephone at their own initiative, any agreement made will only constitute a valid agreement if you accept it in writing. After the call, a confirmation of offer must be sent to you in paper, email or text message format or similar. The confirmation of offer must state what was agreed during the call. For this reason, it is important that you check that the confirmation of offer is correct before you accept it.

• Please note The operator must provide you with full information during telemarketing (as above). If this information is not provided during the call, it must be provided in another way – for example in a confirmation of offer.

Confirmation of agreement

After entering into an agreement during a telephone call, within a reasonable timeframe the company must send you written confirmation of the above. For a service, confirmation should be provided at the latest when the service commences, and for goods at the latest upon delivery. The confirmation should be provided in a legible and lasting form that is accessible to you. Normally, this means that you will receive the information directly in paper form, in writing and sent to your home or to email address. The information being on the operator’s website is insufficient for it to be regarded as having been provided in a lasting form. In such cases, the operator must refer you to information that can be downloaded and saved, for example in PDF format.

• Important Remember to always check that the content of the confirmation corresponds with what you believe was agreed. If the confirmation does not correspond with the agreement, you should issue a complaint as soon as possible and in writing if possible, preferably by email, so that you have proof of sending. If you do not complain/cannot prove that you complained about something you consider incorrect in the confirmation, this can affect what is deemed to have been agreed.

Written confirmation requirement for telemarketing

As of 1 September 2018, the requirement that any agreement made verbally during a telemarketing call must be backed up by a written confirmation came into force. If an operator contacts you by telephone at their own initiative to enter into an agreement, it will only constitute a valid agreement if you accept their offer in writing. Please note that this applies only if you are signing the agreement as a consumer; for agreements between companies, there is no such requirement for agreements to be confirmed in writing.

When does the requirement apply?

The requirement for written confirmation shall apply when the operator contacts you, as a consumer, at their own initiative, with the aim of entering into an agreement. If contact with the operator is initiated by you, or you ask the operator to contact you, there is no requirement for written confirmation. However, the operator may not circumvent the requirement by calling you and encouraging you to call them back.

How does it work?

If the aim is for an agreement to be concluded as a result of the operator contacting you, they must send you a confirmation of their offer. The agreement begins once you have accepted this offer in writing. If you reject the offer during the telephone call, the operator should not send you a confirmation.

The operator’s offer does not need to be sent in paper form – you can also receive it by email, text message or similar means. Your written confirmation can also be sent electronically, for example by you ticking a box in an e-document. Your acceptance can only be given once the call has ended.

What happens if you do not accept?

If you do not accept the offer in writing, the agreement is invalid. This is also the case if your written acceptance is submitted whilst the call is still in progress. If the agreement is invalid, you are not obliged to pay for the goods or services the operator nonetheless supplies or carries out.