BERLIN, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Complaints about unauthorized telephone advertising in Germany reached an all-time high in 2020 as the federal network agency (Bundesnetzagentur) reported a total of 63,273 written complaints about unauthorized advertising calls on Wednesday.

"We continue to take vigorous action against the originators," said Jochen Homann, president of the network agency in a statement.

After the number of written complaints had declined slightly in 2019, complaints went up again last year. According to the Bundesnetzagentur, most cases continued to relate particularly frequently to advertising calls about insurance and financial products as well as energy supply products.

Another frequent subject of complaints was "aggressively advertised magazine subscriptions." Complaints about telecommunications services declined as a result of the agency's increased efforts to prosecute violations in this field.

In 2020, total fines of 1.35 million euros (1.64 million U.S. dollars) were imposed by the Bundesnetzagentur over unauthorized advertising calls as the agency further intensified its prosecution activities against companies acting unfairly. (1 euro =1.22 U.S. dollars)