Ministry of Government Legislation clarifies call-record retention requirements

The Ministry of Government Legislation said in a legal interpretation on Apr. 27 that telephone solicitation sales operators do not have to retain records of calls where a consumer was solicited but no contract was concluded.

In its reply to a petitioner, the ministry said such unsuccessful telephone solicitations do not legally qualify as telephone solicitation sales contracts under Article 7-2(1) of the Door-to-Door Sales Act.

The provision requires operators, with consumers' consent, to retain contract-related portions of calls for at least three months from the contract date under the law.

The ministry interpreted the term contract date as the date on which a contract is concluded under the law, meaning the retention requirement presupposes a completed transaction. Where no agreement is reached after a telephone solicitation, it said, the prerequisite for applying the provision is therefore absent.

The call-record requirement took effect on Dec. 13, 2018 to address risks that consumers may have difficulty accurately understanding contract terms and their intentions may be distorted during calls.

The system was designed to preserve contract-related call content and allow consumers to inspect such records directly upon their request.

The ministry also cited enforcement consequences available under the act when considering the scope of the call-record retention requirement in question. It said a broader reading would disadvantage operators without clear statutory wording that expressly includes telephone calls ending without contracts.

Under the act, the Fair Trade Commission can order corrective measures against businesses that breach the call-record retention obligation, the ministry noted. It can also order suspension of all or part of a business's operations for up to one year if those measures are not carried out.

The ministry's statutory interpretations guide consistent enforcement across the executive branch but do not have the binding force of a final court judgment.