The Consumer Agency's criticism of telephone sales that came on Wednesday was scathing. The authority's conclusion in the report submitted to the government was that the sales should be completely prohibited.
Tina Wahlroth, chairman of the industry organization Kontakta, says that a ban would hit hard.
How many are directly affected is difficult to determine, but we see that it would mean that tens of thousands are affected by losing their jobs, she says and continues:
It is mainly young people. It is a very valuable job with low thresholds, which makes it possible to get to work despite not having an education, she says.
"Serious social issue"
In addition to the sellers, a ban would, according to Tina Wahlroth, also mean that other services are affected.
It affects the entire organization. You have to remove administration, production staff and so on. It's a serious social issue, she says.
In the report, the Consumer Agency writes, with reference to customer surveys, that "in principle no one" wants to be called by a telephone salesman.
Furthermore, the authority believes that it is not just a few bad apples that have given telephone sales a bad reputation, but that even established companies "continuously" cause major problems for consumers.
According to the Consumer Agency, the problem is the basic structure itself, that consumers are overwhelmed and do not get sufficient decision-making basis.
Hopes for dialogue
Tina Wahlroth does not share the authority's conclusions, but calls it "a kind of activism". She says that, on the other hand, there may be reason to review whether certain services or products should not be sold over the phone and hopes for a dialogue with the government on the issue.
Thanks to telephone sales, many services, for example telecom, have very low consumer prices. But it's rarely something that comes up in the debate.
