New Spanish regulation against scam calls and messages

On 12 February 2025, the Spanish Government passed a new regulation to tackle scam calls and messages — the Order TDF/149/2025, of 12 February, establishing measures to tackle scam through telephone calls and messages and to ensure the identification of the numbering used for the provision of customer services and marketing calls (Order on scam).

Under the Order on scam, telcos are required to identify and disrupt scam traffic across Spanish telco networks, and report blocked communications to the regulator. These includes measures for:

• Identifying and blocking calls and messages (SMS/MMS/RCS) using spoofed Spanish numbers that have not been allocated to providers or assigned to customers, including empty and incoherent numbers, unless exceptions apply.
• Identifying and blocking international calls and messages (SMS/MMS/RCS) using spoofed Spanish numbers, except for a number of legitimate use cases — the limited exceptions include calls and messages from Spanish mobile users roaming overseas (by checking a mobile roaming database to be implemented) and legitimate use cases approved by the Secretariat of State for Telecoms and Digital Infrastructures.
• Mandatory alphanumeric Sender ID registry — organisations and providers will be required to register sender IDs on a central registry managed by the Spanish National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), while blocking those that are not on the registry or that have been delivered by an unregistered provider. The technical details of implementation and registry requirements will be defined by CNMC in the following months and subject to public consultation.

Furthermore, the Order on scam prohibits the use of mobile numbering for customer services and telemarketing, and mandates that all these communications must use the number ranges 800/900. By implementing this change, the Order on scam aims to improve transparency and enable users to better identify these types of calls.

As a general rule, the Order on scam entered into force on 7 March 2025, with a few exceptions:

• The obligation to block international calls and SMS/MMS/RCS using as CLI a Spanish number will apply from June 2025.
• The obligations to block SMS/MMS/RCS received from abroad with a Spanish sender ID and the registration and blocking obligations will entry into force in June 2026.
• The prohibition of using mobile numbers for the provision of customer services and marketing will apply from June 2025.

Operators should be developing and implementing these measures, as well as contacting customer known to be affected (i.e., with mobile numbers for customer services and telemarketing) to obtain new lines in the number ranges 800/900.

Given that tackling scams is a strategic priority for the Government, we anticipate effective monitoring and enforcement to achieve compliance. In the case of non-compliance with these duties, the regulator may take enforcement action and impose fines.