Consumer organisation FACUA – Consumidores en Acción filed further complaints against the phone company on 25 August 2026 Española de Telefonía filed, which is publicly associated with Bertín Osborne . The complaints were addressed to the Ministerio de Consumo and the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD). According to FACUA, the company makes it harder to cancel contracts by asking customers to send a copy of their DNI by email or fill in a special online form.
FACUA identifies two legal grounds for its complaint about the practice. First, it allegedly breaches consolidated consumer law (Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2007), under which the right of withdrawal is not subject to any special form and may be exercised in any legally permissible way. Second, requiring a copy of an identity document is problematic under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), since the data minimisation principle requires personal data to be limited to what is necessary. According to the organisation, this is its seventh complaint against the company.
In addition to the cancellation procedures, FACUA accuses Española de Telefonía of other irregularities, including a lack of transparency in pre-contractual information, chargeable customer service lines and misleading claims about connection speeds. Some of the online advertising criticised by the organisation was removed following earlier reports; the latest complaints concern obstacles that remain in place when exercising the right of withdrawal and the handling of identity data.
The authorities have so far provided no information on the status of any reviews or the opening of proceedings. If the AEPD finds breaches, it could take supervisory measures, including sanctions; the Ministerio de Consumo could also issue administrative orders requiring changes to the procedures. The company itself has not yet made any statement on the current allegations in the points described by FACUA that has been officially documented by the authorities.
The complaint highlights a recurring point of tension in Spain between the sales practices of newer telecoms brands and the standards of consumer and data protection law. For customers, the key legal points are that withdrawal is possible without a prescribed form and that identity checks must be proportionate. It remains to be seen whether the proceedings now under way will lead to changes at Española de Telefonía; however, the number and timing of the complaints suggest that regulators are likely to examine the case again.
Editor: Daniel Mayer (Article created with AI assistance).