Since 2010, the Government has been encouraging the finance, insurance, telecommunications and call centres industries to implement an industry scheme to regulate the practices in making marketing calls, which cover calling hours, revealing the identity of the telemarketers and honouring unsubscribe requests, etc. with a view to minimising any inconvenience that may be caused to the public. These industries have issued their codes of practice (Industry Codes) with reference to the Benchmark Code of Practice on Person-to-Person Marketing Calls (Benchmark CoP) formulated by the then Office of the Telecommunications Authority since 2011.
The Benchmark CoP was refined in 2024, requiring telemarketers to reveal more details of their identities upon request as well as limiting the number of cold calls made to a telephone number within a period. At the Government’s invitation, a total of 12 trade associations from seven different industries, namely the finance, insurance, telecommunications, call centres, beauty, estate agency and money lenders, together launched the enhanced industry scheme and updated / promulgated their Industry Codes with reference to the Benchmark CoP to further expand and strengthen the industry regulation of marketing calls.
In March 2011, the Communications Association of Hong Kong (CAHK), the industry association of the telecommunications, promulgated its Industry Code for voluntary compliance by its members. Major telecommunications operators have participated in the self-regulatory scheme, and developed their own codes of practice with reference to the Industry Code. CAHK has further enhanced its Industry Code in June 2024.
To access the full text of the Industry Code and the list of the participating telecommunications operators, please click here.
If you do not want to receive marketing calls from a particular telecommunications operator, you may -
If a participating telecommunications operator fails to implement its code of practice (such as failure in honouring your unsubscribe request), you may -