On April 15, 2026, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition of South Africa promulgated the "Consumer Protection Act Amendment Regulations", officially establishing a national Opt-Out Registry administered by the National Consumer Commission (NCC). The mechanism aims to reduce nuisance calls, promotional SMS, commercial emails and other unsolicited direct marketing communications, and requires all direct marketing businesses to verify whether consumers have registered to opt out before contacting them.
The amended regulations are implemented pursuant to Section 11(3) and Regulation 4 of the Consumer Protection Act. Consumers can use the national Opt-Out Registry to block direct marketing communications in advance, and may choose to opt out of contact from a single specific business or from marketing activities across an entire industry. Unlike the previous approach where consumers had to opt out of promotional messages one by one after receiving them, the new system allows consumers to express their preference of "not wishing to be contacted for marketing purposes" in advance, enhancing their control over how their personal contact information is used.
The NCC is explicitly designated as the administrator of the national Opt-Out Registry. All direct marketing businesses must register in the system and pay the prescribed fees for registration, renewal and marketing list cleaning. Before promoting goods or services, businesses must update their marketing databases and remove the information of consumers who have registered to opt out in the registry. Relevant obligations apply to telephone, SMS, email and other direct marketing channels, and businesses cannot evade liability by outsourcing call centers, marketing agencies or third-party messaging platforms.
Registration for both businesses and consumers on the national Opt-Out Registry is scheduled to launch in July 2026, and the NCC will announce the specific registration procedures separately before the official opening. Businesses should conduct an early inventory of their customer data sources, marketing systems, opt-out mechanisms and third-party service provider arrangements to ensure that they can regularly compare their marketing lists with the NCC registry and complete the cleaning process. For organizations using SMS, voice outbound calls and automated marketing systems, this requirement should be embedded in daily sending workflows, rather than serving only as a remedial measure after receiving complaints.
Direct marketing businesses that violate the amended regulations may be found to have contravened the Consumer Protection Act, and face administrative penalties of up to 1 million rand or 10% of their annual turnover in the previous financial year, whichever is higher. The new system demonstrates that direct marketing regulation in South Africa has gradually shifted from self-regulatory lists maintained by industry associations to a consumer protection framework that is uniformly managed by a state agency, has broader coverage and clearer penalties.
