What we know so far
South Africans who want to stop spam calls South Africa marketers make to their phones can now act, because registration on the National Consumer Commission’s Opt Out Registry commences this month.
The National Consumer Commission stated in April that registration of both direct marketers and consumers would commence in July 2026. Its eServices platform now carries separate registration paths for consumers and for direct marketers.
The legal basis is the Consumer Protection Act Amendment Regulations, 2026, gazetted on 15 April 2026 by Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Mpho Parks Tau.
The regulations were published as Government Notice No. R. 7380 in Government Gazette No. 54521, under section 120(1)(a) read with section 11(6) of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008. They took effect on publication, with no transitional period.
The core change is who carries the burden. Until now, a consumer had to unsubscribe from each company individually, after the unwanted contact had already happened.
Under the amended regulations, a consumer can register a pre-emptive block before any marketing contact occurs, and no direct marketer may market to that person once the block is in place.
No direct marketer may conduct direct marketing at all unless it is registered on the registry.
Failure to comply may attract an administrative penalty of up to R1 million or 10% of the direct marketer’s annual turnover, whichever is greater.
The Commission’s Acting Commissioner, Hardin Ratshisusu, said “for too long, consumers have been exposed to intrusive and unwanted direct marketing communication”.
Spam calls South Africa: what registering actually does
This is where most coverage has been misleading, and the Commission’s own guidance is blunt about it.
Registering on the Opt Out Registry does not by itself stop unsolicited sales and marketing calls.
According to the Commission’s eServices guidance, registration is the first step only. Once the registration information has been approved by the Commission and the consumer has set up login details, the consumer gains access to the pre-emptive block function.
The consumer then selects a marketer and a category of sales campaign, and applies a block or flag against that source and category.
Consumers can block communication from an individual direct marketer or from the entire industry, according to the Commission.
So the practical sequence is register, wait for approval, set up a login, and then apply the blocks. Skipping the final step leaves the phone ringing.
Consumers also carry a duty to keep the information they submit accurate and up to date. Contact details can be updated through the online profile or through the Commission’s call centre.
The Commission’s guidance indicates that registrations are re-confirmed every five years, when the consumer is asked whether the registration and the blocks should remain in place.
The prescribed fees in the regulations are payable by direct marketers. They are not charges levied on consumers registering a block.
Key details and figures
The costs the regulations impose on direct marketers:
| Item | Amount for 2026 |
|---|---|
| Initial registration fee | R2,574 |
| Annual renewal fee | R1,930.50 |
| Monthly database cleansing | R0.12 per data entry |
| Maximum administrative penalty | R1 million or 10% of annual turnover, whichever is greater |
New tariff schedules for registration and renewal are published on a three-year cycle.
The regulations add three annexures to the Consumer Protection Act Regulations, 2011, providing the operative forms and tariff schedules, and insert new definitions including direct marketer, electronic communication recipient, pre-emptive block and cleansing.
Cleansing is defined as removing consumers who have opted out from a direct marketer’s database so that they are no longer contacted. It must be done monthly against the Commission’s records.
Direct marketing communications must also identify the sender clearly and carry accurate and comprehensive contact details.
The regime is compulsory and applies to every direct marketer, replacing the previous voluntary arrangement in which membership of an industry body was treated as sufficient.
Scope matters here. The Consumer Protection Act’s direct marketing provisions apply to individual consumers and to small juristic persons whose annual turnover or asset value falls below the R2 million threshold set under the Act.
Law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, whose analysis prompted much of this week’s coverage, noted that the amendments materially raise the compliance threshold and that businesses conducting direct marketing should review their practices urgently.
What happens next
The Commission said it would communicate the registration process before registration commences, and legal analysts have indicated the system is anticipated to be fully operational by September 2026.
The Commission has not published figures for how many consumers or marketers have registered.
The enforcement gap is the open question, and it is a substantial one.
Tim Fletcher and Kgatlhiso Mofokeng of Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr pointed out that large volumes of spam calls originate outside South Africa’s borders and are not subject to South African regulations.
They also noted that it is unclear whether technical measures at the network level have been implemented to identify marketers who ignore the rules, warning that “a registry without robust enforcement will tend to bind only the compliant”.
A second unresolved question concerns consent. Where a consumer previously gave express consent to a company and later registers a pre-emptive block, it is not settled whether the earlier consent or the later block prevails.
Legal practitioners have flagged this as requiring guidance from the Commission or a court ruling. Marketers are meanwhile advised to treat the block as overriding earlier consent.
For consumers, the immediate step is narrow and concrete. Register on the Commission’s eServices platform, complete the approval and login process, then apply the pre-emptive blocks, because the registration on its own does not stop the calls.
