Spain 400 Range for Commercial Calls: regulatory guide and support

1. Executive summary

New 400 range

The resolution published in the BOE on 16 April 2026 creates the 400 range as dedicated, nine-digit numbering for commercial calls. Use is outbound only: inbound calls are not permitted.

Go-live timeline

The system must be operational within six months of the resolution entering into force — towards mid-October 2026.

CNMC role

The CNMC will supervise compliance and process numbering allocation under the general numbering management procedures.

5% exemption

A specific transitional regime applies to certain electricity, gas, and telecom retailers with a national market share below 5% that also do not fall within the large company category under article 2.2 of Law 10/2025.

Main conclusion. The 5% exemption does not extend to other sectors. Within the affected sectors, companies above 5% national share cannot rely on the exemption and must use specific numbering when the law and implementing resolutions apply. Using public CNMC data, telecom groups clearly above 5% include Telefónica/Movistar, MASORANGE, Vodafone, and DIGI. In electricity, Endesa, Iberdrola, and Naturgy exceed 5%. In gas, Naturgy, Endesa, and Repsol exceed 5% by sales, while Iberdrola sits below 10% but requires review against the metric used for the exemption.

Important. The law does not set a fixed expiry date for the 5% exemption. It is not a time-limited regime that ends automatically; it ceases when the company or its group exceeds the relevant legal thresholds.

2. Legal framework and published resolutions

The new regulatory scheme rests on at least the following instruments:

The system logic is to strengthen ex ante identification of commercial calls and let users, operators, and authorities distinguish more easily between:

• calls for commercial or customer-acquisition purposes;
• customer service or after-sales calls;
• irregular or potentially fraudulent traffic.

3. What the 400 range is and how it works

Resolution BOE-A-2026-8409 assigns the 400 range to commercial calls. Numbering has nine digits and is used only as originating numbering for outbound calls; inbound calls are not permitted.

This scheme lets recipients identify commercial intent more immediately and helps operators apply blocking obligations and irregular traffic treatment more effectively.

4. How ranges are requested from the CNMC

400 numbering will be allocated by the CNMC under the general numbering management procedures. The resolution refers to that general regime and announces an initial allocation phase.

In practice, applications are processed through the Number Register on the CNMC electronic office, using standard procedures for allocation, modification, cancellation, transfer, and sub-allocation of numbering resources.

Practical approach. The 400 range does not appear to require a radically different procedure from other ranges. The resolution refers to general processing and does not currently require a separate mechanism beyond the possible exceptional initial allocation.

5. How operators can tell if a call is commercial

Identifying commercial calls cannot rely solely on technical traffic analysis, but neither does it depend only on the customer's self-classification. The legal system combines several elements:

• Specific numbering: if the call originates from a 400, its commercial purpose is presumed.
• Blocking obligation: Law 10/2025 requires blocking certain irregular traffic, especially commercial calls without specific numbering or code.
• Objective and reasonable technical systems: operators must implement technical procedures to identify irregular calls, always in line with criteria and authorisations required by the rules.

Operators cannot freely "guess" commerciality, but must establish controls that allow objective and reasonable identification of commercial campaigns that bypass 400 or show signs of spoofing or irregular traffic.

6. 5% transitional regime: scope, sectors, and duration

Law 10/2025 contains a specific regime for certain companies with a national market share below 5%. Under the legal text, certain paragraphs of article 16 — including requirements linked to specific numbering or code for commercial calls and the related blocking scheme — do not apply to electricity, gas, or telecom retailers when:

• they have a national market share below 5%, and
• they do not fall within the large company category under article 2.2 of Law 10/2025.

Sectoral scope. The 5% exemption applies only to electricity, gas, and telecom services. It does not extend to other sectors, even if they also make commercial calls.

6.1 When does the 5% exemption end?

The rules do not set a fixed expiry date. The exemption does not disappear with time alone; it ends when its requirements are no longer met.

The exemption ceases to apply when either of the following occurs:

• the company or its group reaches or exceeds 5% national market share, or
• the entity becomes a large company under article 2.2 of Law 10/2025.

6.2 How is the 5% share determined?

For telecom services, determination is relatively straightforward because the CNMC periodically publishes market shares and line data identifying the main national operators.

For electricity and gas, the CNMC also publishes retail market reports and shares by sales and by supply points or customers. The law does not unambiguously specify the exact metric — sales, customers, or supply points — for the 5% national market share, although official reports clearly identify groups well above that threshold.

7. Companies above 5% that cannot use the exemption

Under Law 10/2025, the 5% exemption can only benefit electricity, gas, or telecom retailers below the threshold that are not large companies under article 2.2.

7.1 Telecom services

The CNMC has identified as principal operators in telecom markets the groups exceeding 5% of the national market by number of lines, as a more faithful criterion.

In December 2024 the CNMC stated that Telefónica/Movistar, MASORANGE, Vodafone, and DIGI are principal operators for exceeding 5% of the national market in lines.

7.2 Retail electricity supply

In the CNMC's 2024 retail gas and electricity market supervision report, groups with an electricity sales share equal to or above 5% included:

The CNMC also notes other groups — such as EDP, Repsol, Acciona, TotalEnergies, Fortia, Galp, Axpo, Eni, and Audax — between 1% and 5% or nearby ranges, so exemption eligibility depends on the applicable metric and whether they qualify as large companies under article 2.2.

7.3 Retail gas supply

In the same report, the main gas sales shares were:

Important nuance for gas and electricity. The law refers to national market share but does not specify with absolute precision whether it is measured by sales, customers, or supply points. Groups well above 5% — Naturgy, Endesa, and Repsol in gas; Endesa, Iberdrola, and Naturgy in electricity — are clearly outside the exemption.

8. Impact on retail operators, aggregators, and contact centres

A key question is whether operators must profile only the direct client contracting the voice service — for example, a contact centre such as Teleperformance — or also the principal company or advertiser on whose behalf the campaign runs — for example, Orange España.

8.1 Should the campaign be profiled as "Orange España" or "Teleperformance"?

The strongest regulatory reading is that the operator cannot limit itself to identifying the intermediary or contact centre. It must be able to identify, at least internally, the company on whose behalf the commercial call is made.

• The legal obligation covers commercial calls made by companies or by third parties acting on their behalf.
• Whether the 5% exemption applies depends on the company in the electricity, gas, or telecom sector whose campaign is being run — not on the size or share of a BPO or contact centre.
• If a contact centre runs campaigns for several companies, some exempt and others not exempt, the operator must distinguish them internally to apply 400 numbering and traffic treatment correctly.
• Traffic profile alone (for example, low ASR or low ACD) does not by itself resolve commerciality, whether 400 is required, or whether the advertiser qualifies for the exemption.

Example. If Teleperformance runs an acquisition campaign for Orange España, the prudent interpretation is that the operator should treat the traffic as linked to Orange España — the principal company — not only to Teleperformance, so it can assess whether the campaign must use 400 numbering and whether the advertiser is outside the 5% exemption.

8.2 Is there an express obligation to profile the end client?

The law and resolutions analysed do not contain an express obligation using that terminology ("profile" or "know the real end client of the campaign"). However, a systematic reading leads to operators implementing sufficient contractual and operational diligence to:

• identify the real use of the voice service;
• distinguish commercial from non-commercial traffic;
• apply the 400 range and sectoral exemptions correctly;
• block irregular traffic when required numbering is not used.

In practice, retail contracts or aggregator and BPO relationships should include clauses and mechanisms to establish:

• whether the service will be used for commercial campaigns;
• which principal company is behind the campaign;
• whether that company operates in a sector subject to the 5% exemption;
• whether it is above or below that threshold;
• which numbering or routes will be used and for what purposes.

9. Operational conclusions and compliance recommendations

1. The 400 range is the specific numbering created for commercial calls and must be operational within six months of the 16 April 2026 resolution.
2. The CNMC will allocate numbering under general procedures and supervise its use.
3. The 5% exemption applies only to electricity, gas, and telecom services; it does not reach other sectors.
4. There is no fixed expiry date for that exemption: it stops applying when the company or group reaches or exceeds 5% national share or becomes a large company under article 2.2.
5. With public CNMC data, Telefónica/Movistar, MASORANGE, Vodafone, and DIGI clearly exceed 5% in telecom and cannot use the exemption.
6. In electricity, at least Endesa, Iberdrola, and Naturgy exceed 5% by energy sales.
7. In gas, Naturgy, Endesa, and Repsol clearly exceed 5% by sales; Iberdrola sits between 3% and 10% and requires verification of the exact metric.
8. Operators cannot rely only on technical traffic profiles. They need a combined approach with sufficient contractual and operational information to identify the principal beneficiary of the campaign.
9. In contact centre or BPO scenarios, the prudent interpretation is to link the campaign internally to the principal advertiser — not only the BPO.
10. Companies and operators should review contracts, onboarding processes, monitoring models, and traceability systems now to prepare for the new rules.

10. Annex: issues still requiring formal clarification

Although the general 400 framework can be reconstructed with reasonable confidence, some points are not fully resolved in available sources and may warrant a formal clarification request to the CNMC or the Secretariat of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure.

• Exact metric for the 5% "national market share" in electricity and gas: the CNMC publishes shares by sales, customers, and supply points, but the law does not clearly specify which applies to the exemption.
• Corporate group treatment and corporate structure: how share is aggregated when several retailers or brands exist within the same group.
• Contractual traceability required in contact centre, subcontracting, or traffic aggregation scenarios: the strongest reading points to identifying the principal company, but the rules do not expressly detail the diligence model required of operators.
• Technical development of blocking systems and "objective and reasonable" criteria to detect commercial calls not identified with 400.
• Practical coordination between 400 numbering and customer-service numbering, especially in mixed services or hybrid campaigns.

11. Frequently asked questions

12. References and official links

1. BOE-A-2026-8409 — Resolution assigning the 400 range to commercial calls
2. BOE-A-2026-8408 — Resolution on numbering for customer service
3. Law 10/2025 — Customer service regulation (commercial call measures)
4. Law 11/2022 — General Telecommunications Law
5. CNMC — Numbering information
6. TelecomRegistration.com — VoIP provider registration support
7. TelecomRegistration.com — CNMC Alias Registration guide (SMS/MMS/RCS)

This content is prepared for informational and technical-regulatory purposes. It does not constitute individual legal advice.