In a stark move last week, the Dubai government imposed a stiff fine of 50,000 dirhams ($13,614) each on 159 different companies based in the region. All of them had been found violating the telemarketing rules.

Now, Dubai residents are no strangers to random calls. From the promotion of real estate services and new banking products to investment schemes and, more recently, crypto services—marketing callers are everywhere. Intrusive, insistent and very, very frequent. In fact, the quantum of unwanted calls is a subject of constant discussion across social media platforms as well.

So much so that last year, the government …