Call centers require immediate action

The provisions of the Italian budget law require actions in relation to call centers whose breach will lead to costly fines. 

As part of measures included in the recently approved Italian budget law aimed at increasing the level of employment in the country, the Parliament has rendered even stricter the already stringent provisions on call centers.

Call centers located outside of the European Union

The most stringent regime applies call centers located outside of the European Union for which it is provided that:

1. the notification obligations already prescribed in the past have now to be addressed to a larger number of entities providing a level of detail on procedures, measures implemented and used numbering which is very broad. The breach of such obligation is sanctioned with fines of € 150,000 and therefore the issue cannot be underestimated;
2. entities that already have call centers abroad need to cure their position performing the notification mentioned above;
3. entities placing their call centers abroad would lose tax related benefits connected to such activity. Also in this case the provision is very broad and might have a considerable negative impact;
4. people calling a call center should in any case have the possibility to speak to an operator located either in Italy or in the European Union. This means that a full outsourcing of a call center outside of the European Union, which includes for instance even Albania that is very close to Italy, would not be possible;
5. the call center located abroad would be considered data controller of processed data and notifications to them can be performed to the instructing entity located in Italy. This is a quite unusual provision since privacy laws are set out by the current EU Privacy Directives and the upcoming EU Privacy Regulation which prevail over national laws. But the purpose of the provision is to ensure that also the call centers located abroad can be directly sanctioned for privacy breaches that is something which will be in any case possible under the terms of the EU Privacy Regulation. Also, the possibility of serving a notice upon the call center located abroad through its instructing entity places a considerable burden on the latter that will have to adopt the necessary precautions; and
6. operators of call centers, or companies running call centers internally, regardless of their location and provided that they use numbers of the Italian numbering system, shall enrol in the registry of Italian communications operators.

Call centers located in any country

If a call center is located in any country and uses Italian phone numbers, regardless of the nationality of the company, operators of call centers, or companies running call centers internally, shall enrol in the registry of Italian communications operators. If you breach such obligation, a fine of € 50,000 would be applicable.

This is a quite complex procedure and its complexity will require an immediate action since the deadline for the enrolment already expired at the beginning of March 2017.