On 10 July 2023, Colombia enacted Ley 2300 de 2023 (commonly known as the Dejen de Fregar Anti-Harassment Law), which entered into force on 10 October 2023. Designed to protect consumer privacy, the law imposes mandatory restrictions on delivery conditions, time windows and contact frequency for debt collection messages, commercial marketing SMS and voice calls. It serves as the fundamental primary legislation governing A2P marketing and debt collection services in Colombia.
The law mandates that service providers must check the national RNE opt-out database prior to sending any commercial SMS or cross-border marketing calls. Marketing SMS and debt collection voice calls may not be dispatched without explicit user consent. Commercial SMS must include a convenient one-click unsubscribe mechanism. Violations will be referred to SIC for substantial fines. Clear time restrictions apply: commercial SMS and calls are permitted only on working days between 07:00–19:00 and on Saturdays between 08:00–15:00. Marketing communications are prohibited on Sundays and national public holidays.
Harassment-style outreach is banned. A maximum of one contact attempt per user per day is allowed; providers must not alternate between SMS, voice and other channels to repeatedly contact the same user within a single week. The regulation applies not only to domestic enterprises but also to inbound cross-border A2P traffic. Local PCA/IT integrators bear primary responsibility for RNE database validation and control over delivery times and frequency.
Certain categories of messages are exempt: transaction confirmations, account alerts and fraud risk notifications are not subject to time-of-day and frequency limits. Overseas service providers delivering SMS traffic to Colombia must ensure local partner integrators fully comply with all provisions of the law and retain records of user consent to mitigate penalty risks.
