Can I call now? Colombia calling hours under Law 2300

What does Law 2300 of 2023 say about calling hours?

Law 2300 of 2023, known as the "Dejen de fregar" law, protects consumers' right to privacy and sets the channels, the hours and the frequency with which they can be contacted. It was published in the Diario Oficial 52.452 of 10 July 2023 and has been in force since 10 October 2023. The official text is in Spanish; the quotes below are our translation.

Article 3 sets the clock. Collection practices must be respectful and take place within these hours, and the text excludes "any type of contact" with the consumer on Sundays and public holidays:

• Monday to Friday: 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
• Saturday: 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
• Sundays and public holidays: no contact.

The paragraph of article 3 leaves one door open: if a consumer wants to be contacted at other hours, they must ask for it expressly, in a document separate from the contract and signed after it. Without that document, the window above applies.

Besides hours, article 3 limits frequency. Once direct contact with the consumer is established, they cannot be contacted through several channels within the same week or more than once on the same day. Article 2 adds that collections may only use the channels the consumer authorized, and article 4 forbids contacting their personal references.

Who does it apply to: collections, sales or advertising?

The law was born for collections. Article 1 covers entities supervised by the Superintendencia Financiera and every person or company that carries out collections, directly, through third parties or by assignment of the debt.

Article 5 widens the scope. The law applies "in the same terms" to commercial relations between producers and providers of goods and services, public or private, and the consumer, regarding advertising messages sent by SMS, app or web messaging and email, and regarding commercial or advertising phone calls. Its paragraph 3 sums it up: those messages and calls may only be made "within the hours set in article 3". That is why the tool above gives the same answer for collections, commercial calls and advertising calls, with the legal basis for each in view.

Article 8 exempts contacts whose purpose is to inform the consumer of the timely confirmation of monetary transactions made, of voluntary savings and severance funds (cesantías), to send information the consumer asked for, or to raise alerts about fraudulent, unusual or suspicious transactions. The tool does not evaluate those exceptions. Article 9 gives the penalties to the Superintendencia Financiera and the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (SIC), within their powers.

What are the public holidays in Colombia in 2026 and 2027?

Public holidays follow Law 51 of 1983, the Emiliani law. These stay where they fall: 1 January, 1 May, 20 July, 7 August, 8 December and 25 December, plus Holy Thursday and Good Friday. These move to the following Monday when they do not fall on one: 6 January, 19 March, 29 June, 15 August, 12 October, 1 November, 11 November, Ascension, Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart. Holy Week and the three holidays tied to it come from Easter Sunday (5 April in 2026 and 28 March in 2027).

From 2026 there is one more. Law 2578 of 2026 made the Day of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá, 9 July, a national holiday and says to apply Law 51 of 1983 to place it on the calendar. So in 2026 it falls on Monday 13 July and in 2027 on Monday 12 July. When a holiday falls on a Saturday (1 May, 7 August and 25 December 2027), that Saturday has no contact window either.

What is the Registro de Números Excluidos (RNE) and when must you check it?

The Registro de Números Excluidos (excluded numbers registry) is a list kept by the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) where anyone can register their number, free of charge, to stop receiving advertising or commercial messages by SMS, apps, web or email, and commercial or advertising phone calls. It is governed by article 2.1.18.1 of CRC Resolution 5050 of 2016, as amended by CRC Resolution 8308 of 2026. A registration or removal takes effect from the next business day, and the same exceptions as article 8 of Law 2300 apply.

For companies, the CRC's RNE guide (version in force since 15 January 2026) says that since 10 April 2024 every producer and provider of goods and services must check the RNE before making commercial contact. The list is updated daily, so the check comes every time before sending or calling. Companies register free of charge at tramitescrcom.gov.co. Landlines can be registered too. A company the person expressly authorized may still contact them, and enforcement belongs to the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio.

Keeping to the hours does not replace the RNE check, and the RNE check does not replace the hours. They are two separate checks before a commercial or advertising campaign. This tool checks the hours only.

What are the CRC call labels in 2026?

With CRC resolutions 8308 (30 July 2026) and 8396 (29 October 2026), phone operators show labels on the screen of whoever receives certain calls. Two matter to callers:

• "Alerta de llamada sospechosa" (suspicious call alert): the originating operator monitors voice traffic in real time and looks for, among other patterns, "repetitive patterns of short, sequential calls typical of robocalls", measured with indicators such as average call duration (ACD) and answer rate (ASR). The label is temporary: it lasts at most one month after the pattern stops, and the line holder can ask for a review within 10 business days.
• "Llamada con fines publicitarios" (advertising call): corporate customers that use voice services for advertising must first register the numbers or ranges they use with their operator. Those calls are shown with this label.

The advertising label timeline depends on when Resolution 8396 is published in the Diario Oficial: corporate customers have one month from that publication to tell their operator, and operators then have two more months to set up the label. That is why we do not give a fixed date. Confirm the publication date before planning a campaign. Every six months, operators report the registered customers and labelled calls to the SIC, to enforce the RNE.

Operators also block calls that show unassigned numbers, or numbers not enabled to originate calls, as caller ID, under the CRC circular on the unauthorized numbering list. The labels and the Law 2300 hours are separate rules: meeting one does not replace the other.

What do you have to tell people, and ask for, if you record the call?

Law 1581 of 2012 defines authorization as the "prior, express and informed consent of the data subject" (art. 3) and requires personal data processing to have it, obtained by any means that can be consulted later (art. 9). A voice recording tied to an identifiable person can be personal data. Article 10 lists the cases where no authorization is needed, such as public data or medical emergencies.

When asking for authorization, article 12 requires telling the person the purpose of the processing, their rights and the identity and contact details of the controller, and keeping proof. On a call, that means saying at the start that it is being recorded and why, and keeping evidence of the notice. The Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio oversees personal data processing (art. 19). This text is informational and does not promise that a notice is enough in your case.

How does it work with HellouOne?

HellouOne AI voice agents call your contacts in outbound campaigns. When you create a campaign you choose the days, hours and time zone it may call in, and that window is the one you can align with the article 3 hours this tool shows.

Compliance rules are on by default. For collections calls in Colombia they follow Law 2300 of 2023: Monday to Friday 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with no contact on Sundays or public holidays. Daily and weekly attempt caps limit how many times the same person is called. An administrator can turn a rule off, and that change is audited.

Before a campaign launches, an administrator must confirm the contacts gave the consent the law requires. The do-not-call list is always respected, and when someone says on the call that they do not want to be called again, the exclusion is recorded. Every call opens in a fixed order: the agent introduces itself as a virtual assistant, waits for the person to speak, asks if it is speaking with the contact, gives the recording notice and only then says why it is calling.

These default rules are described for collections. For commercial or advertising campaigns you set each campaign's calling window yourself, and the RNE check remains the caller's responsibility: do it before you upload your contact list. If yours is a collections case, see also the page on collections with HellouOne.