Bundesnetzagentur records another rise in complaints
Year of issue 2026
Date of issue 2026.01.26
The Bundesnetzagentur received a total of 39,842 written complaints concerning unsolicited telesales calls in 2025, 6% more than the 37,561 received in 2024.
“We’ve seen another increase in complaints in 2025, as in the year before. Unsolicited marketing calls cause great harm to consumers and are also a serious problem for competition in the affected sectors. We will continue to take strong action against companies making unsolicited telesales calls,
” said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur .
More than 28% of complaints related to prize draws, compared to about 20% in 2024. The volume of complaints about this issue increased significantly as well. Other topics were “services” and “home improvements”, making up about 10% and 8% respectively of all complaints. “Home improvements” includes calls advertising the sale and installation of solar panels. The number of complaints on this topic dropped by about half on the previous year, partly due to the fact that the Bundesnetzagentur has imposed more fines on various disreputable marketers of photovoltaic products.
The Bundesnetzagentur conducted a number of large-scale proceedings relating to unsolicited marketing calls for electricity and gas supply contracts in 2025. Complaints in this area also fell to 11.5% from nearly 14% in 2024.
Breaches incur heavy fines
The Bundesnetzagentur pursued 13 major administrative fine procedures in 2025. It imposed fines totalling over €1.099mn. The year before, this figure was €1.37mn.
For the first time, the Bundesnetzagentur penalised breaches of the obligation to document and retain consent to telephone marketing. All advertising companies have been required to maintain complete documentation since October 2021. Documenting consent to advertising is intended to make it easier for companies to check compliance in their own advertising campaigns, but the companies in these cases had not done so. The unclear data records at the companies led to numerous unsolicited marketing calls to consumers.
The Bundesnetzagentur publishes details of all procedures ending in a fine (in German) at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/massnahmen-telefonwerbung.
Reporting unsolicited marketing calls
The Bundesnetzagentur relies on information from consumers to pursue unsolicited sales calls. Consumers can report unwanted marketing calls they have not previously consented to, or to which they have withdrawn their consent, here (form only available in German): www.bundesnetzagentur.de/telefonwerbung-beschwerde.