How changes to the law will affect your phone contract in Spain
If you have a Spanish phone contract, new legislation means that your conditions could be changing. But what are the changes, and when do they kick in?
If you live in Spain and have a phone contract with a Spanish operator, you might have received an email or text message in recent weeks telling you that your conditions are about to change in accordance with a new law.
If you haven’t, it may have been included in your latest bill, or could’ve been sent a few months ago when the Spanish government’s General Telecommunications Law 11/2022 was officially announced.
The changes are set to come into effect from November, and all the major phone operators in Spain, including 02, Movistar, Vodafone, Jazztel, and Orange, are finalising the changes and informing their customers ahead of implementing them on October 29th and 30th.
But what is the new law? And how will it affect the conditions of your phone contract?
The law
So, what does the Telecommunications Law 11/2022 actually do? The law is, broadly speaking, bolstered regulation of the telecommunications sector, but part of the text focuses on mobile phone contracts.
According to the official government announcement, one of main aims of the legislation is to "maximise the interests and benefits for companies and consumers, mainly in terms of lower prices, quality of services, variety of choice and innovation, taking due account taking into account the variety of conditions in terms of competition and consumers".
Complicated legalise aside, the most significant change is that phone contracts will now be capped at a maximum duration of 24 months.
As such, if you are with a provider that offers permanent contracts, that will now be limited to 24 months. In you are with a non-permanent provider, nothing really changes besides perhaps some minor adjustments to your privacy and data protection rights.
And in what will be music to the ears of many customers, the law also includes the possibility of terminating the contract without penalty when it runs out.
The rest of the changes, however, depend on who your operator is.
We’ve broken down the changes you should now about below.
Lowi and Vodafone
Lowi and Vodafone customers services should have received their updated conditions via text message. Both Lowi and Vodafone inform that contracts moving forward will be for a maximum of 24 months, but also that you can opt out of your contract at no extra cost, and that it will not be necessary to inform your operator a month in advance, as was the case in the past.
For Lowi customers, when your 24-month contract is nearing renewal, the company will notify you and automatically renew it for another 24 months, if you don’t object.
Additionally, Vodafone have introduced a new clause in their contracts that ties the automatic updating of tariff rates to the average Consumer Price Index rate (known as the IPC in Spain).
Vodafone are also making a change to its privacy policy in which customers must give their consent to receive offers from other Vodafone Group services.
Orange and Jazztel
Orange emailed its customers in September, and from October 30th, both Orange and Jazztel customers must give two days' notice to unsubscribe from their contract.
For Orange prepaid customers, contracts will be valid for 6 months from the time the first call is made or from the last top-up, and will be automatically extended for periods of 6 months with each top-up.
Both operators will extend the contracts for another 24 months if the customers do not opt out, and Jazztel customers who had indefinite contracts will now have those set to two years, as per the new legislation.
Movistar and O2
If you’re an O2 customer, the fact its contracts are non-permanent might’ve been one of the things that attracted you to the company in the first place. As a result, the new legislation won’t really affect O2 customers except that its indefinite contracts are now to be capped at 24 months.
For Movistar users, the updated conditions will come into effect from October 29th, and the company informed customers that although Movistar doesn’t have permanent contracts, the changes will affect those who got their phones as part of Movistar’s €0 per month deal.
Movistar has also updated its privacy and data protection policy, allowing them to contact customers with new or improved rates.
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If you live in Spain and have a phone contract with a Spanish operator, you might have received an email or text message in recent weeks telling you that your conditions are about to change in accordance with a new law.
If you haven’t, it may have been included in your latest bill, or could’ve been sent a few months ago when the Spanish government’s General Telecommunications Law 11/2022 was officially announced.
The changes are set to come into effect from November, and all the major phone operators in Spain, including 02, Movistar, Vodafone, Jazztel, and Orange, are finalising the changes and informing their customers ahead of implementing them on October 29th and 30th.
But what is the new law? And how will it affect the conditions of your phone contract?
The law
So, what does the Telecommunications Law 11/2022 actually do? The law is, broadly speaking, bolstered regulation of the telecommunications sector, but part of the text focuses on mobile phone contracts.
According to the official government announcement, one of main aims of the legislation is to "maximise the interests and benefits for companies and consumers, mainly in terms of lower prices, quality of services, variety of choice and innovation, taking due account taking into account the variety of conditions in terms of competition and consumers".
Complicated legalise aside, the most significant change is that phone contracts will now be capped at a maximum duration of 24 months.
As such, if you are with a provider that offers permanent contracts, that will now be limited to 24 months. In you are with a non-permanent provider, nothing really changes besides perhaps some minor adjustments to your privacy and data protection rights.
And in what will be music to the ears of many customers, the law also includes the possibility of terminating the contract without penalty when it runs out.
The rest of the changes, however, depend on who your operator is.
We’ve broken down the changes you should now about below.
Lowi and Vodafone
Lowi and Vodafone customers services should have received their updated conditions via text message. Both Lowi and Vodafone inform that contracts moving forward will be for a maximum of 24 months, but also that you can opt out of your contract at no extra cost, and that it will not be necessary to inform your operator a month in advance, as was the case in the past.
For Lowi customers, when your 24-month contract is nearing renewal, the company will notify you and automatically renew it for another 24 months, if you don’t object.
Additionally, Vodafone have introduced a new clause in their contracts that ties the automatic updating of tariff rates to the average Consumer Price Index rate (known as the IPC in Spain).
Vodafone are also making a change to its privacy policy in which customers must give their consent to receive offers from other Vodafone Group services.
Orange and Jazztel
Orange emailed its customers in September, and from October 30th, both Orange and Jazztel customers must give two days' notice to unsubscribe from their contract.
For Orange prepaid customers, contracts will be valid for 6 months from the time the first call is made or from the last top-up, and will be automatically extended for periods of 6 months with each top-up.
Both operators will extend the contracts for another 24 months if the customers do not opt out, and Jazztel customers who had indefinite contracts will now have those set to two years, as per the new legislation.
Movistar and O2
If you’re an O2 customer, the fact its contracts are non-permanent might’ve been one of the things that attracted you to the company in the first place. As a result, the new legislation won’t really affect O2 customers except that its indefinite contracts are now to be capped at 24 months.
For Movistar users, the updated conditions will come into effect from October 29th, and the company informed customers that although Movistar doesn’t have permanent contracts, the changes will affect those who got their phones as part of Movistar’s €0 per month deal.
Movistar has also updated its privacy and data protection policy, allowing them to contact customers with new or improved rates.
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