Consumers get new weapon against direct marketing spam

South Africa’s direct marketing industry faces a significant new compliance regime after trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau gazetted amendments to the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) that require all direct marketers to register with the National Consumer Commission and scrub their databases monthly against a national opt-out registry.

The CPA amendment regulations (2026), published in the Government Gazette on Wednesday, take effect immediately. They operationalise a long-dormant provision in the act that allows consumers to register a “pre-emptive block” against direct marketing contact.

Under the new rules, any person or business conducting direct marketing to South African consumers must register as a direct marketer with the NCC, pay an initial registration fee and renew annually. Marketers that fail to register are prohibited from contacting consumers for direct marketing purposes.

The fee schedule, set out in the regulations, prescribes an initial registration fee of R2 574 in 2026, rising incrementally to R2 979.73 by 2029. Annual renewal fees start at R1 930.50 and rise to R2 234.80 over the same period. Marketers will also pay a “cleansing fee” of 12c per data entry in 2026, rising to 18c by 2029. The regulations require tariffs to be reviewed on a three-year cycle.

The regulations introduce a formal definition of “cleansing”, described as the process of removing consumers who have opted out of electronic communication from a direct marketer’s database.

Marketers must cleanse their databases monthly against the NCC’s opt-out registry. They are also prohibited from marketing to any consumer who has registered a block.

New provisions

Consumers can register a pre-emptive block by completing a form and submitting it to the NCC. The commission is required to keep its registry accessible at all times except during unforeseen technical interruptions, and must inform the public if access is unavailable for 24 hours or more.

Several new provisions target anonymous bulk messaging. Marketers must ensure recipients can identify the marketer’s name, electronic address, physical address and contact number. They must be identifiable “even on public platforms” and are prohibited from disseminating electronic communication from a public platform where the originator is unidentifiable.

Read: Ring, reject, repeat: South Africa’s spam call crisis

Any electronic communication transmitted to a recipient’s device must be identifiable by the recipient – a provision aimed at the bulk SMS, WhatsApp broadcast and social media direct messaging practices that have proliferated in recent years.

The new regime sits alongside, but is distinct from, the direct marketing provisions in the Protection of Personal Information Act, which the Information Regulator enforces. Popia restricts electronic direct marketing to non-customers without prior consent.

Businesses engaged in direct marketing will now face overlapping compliance obligations under both pieces of legislation, administered by different regulators.

Questions remain about the NCC’s operational readiness to run the registry. The commission has been resource-constrained for years, and it is not immediately clear whether the consumer-facing portal to register pre-emptive blocks is live or when marketers will be able to register and begin cleansing their databases against the national list.  – (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media