The French parliament will today (March 6) examine a new proposed law aiming to crack down on unsolicited telemarketing calls that are made without prior consent.
The bill, known as ‘loi pour un démarchage téléphonique consenti (bill on consent for telephone canvassing)’ was adopted in the Senate four months ago, and is now set to be debated in the Assemblée Nationale.
If it is passed - as is expected - the new rules are set to come into force on January 1, 2026.
Telephone canvassing frustration
It comes after a report by Pascal Lecamp - MP for Les Démocrates de la Vienne, and rapporteur of the bill - found:
Similarly, a report by consumer group UFC-Que Choisir found:
This is largely attributed to abuse of the rules and laws already in place, and to existing restrictions and systems - such as Bloctel, which is a database that is supposed to prevent unwanted calls - not working as intended. Bloctel has been in place since 2016, but is frequently criticised for being ineffective.
Read also: Sign up to Bloctel but don’t expect miracles
Read more: Four ways to stop cold calls to your French telephone number
What are the current rules on cold calling?
Current rules - introduced by laws including the loi Hamon of 2014 and the loi Naegelen of 2020 - state:
Calls can only be made between 10:00 and 13:00, and between 14:00 and 20:00 from Monday to Friday
A marketing professional may only contact someone a maximum of four times per month
Callers must introduce themselves at the start of the call and ask for permission to continue
Call recipients can opt out from receiving calls and ask not to be contacted, if a company calls
The same caller cannot call within the next 60 days once you have said you are not interested
Marketing callers cannot call from a number beginning with 06 or 07
Marketers in mainland France can only use numbers starting with 0162, 0163, 0270, 0271, 0377, 0378, 0424, 0425, 0568, 0569, 0948 and 0949
Unhappy recipients can note down the number of the caller, and report them to the consumer and fraud office DGCCRF.
Call recipients can calmly point out errors to the caller if they make them. For example, if they call outside the legal hours, or if they start the call without asking for your permission to continue or not.
Read more: How to check if an incoming call is from a cold caller in France
Read also: How can I stop nuisance cold callers phoning my house in France?
What will the new law state?
The idea behind the new law is to require consent even before the first call, to ensure that only those who really want to be contacted will be called.
“The list principle has been abandoned in favour of an explicit individual consent principle, expressed directly by the consumer without the need to register on a centralised database,” said Mr Lecamp in his report.
People will need to fill in a form or tick a box to opt in to calls, rather than to opt out.
“This is the strongest point, it completely reverses the balance of power,” said Mr Lecamp. “The ‘opt-in’ system has proven its worth in many European countries, first and foremost Germany, England and Portugal.”
Overall, the bill is about recognising the ‘inefficiency’ of the Bloctel system and also about creating stronger consumer consent.
“This law is based on the observation that what has been put in place with Bloctel is not working. The idea was therefore to find an alternative,” said Mr Lecamp.
The bill will aim to ensure that canvassers will only be able to call people if they have explicitly indicated - online or by post, for example - to a company that they wish to be contacted. It is then up to the company to send these lists of numbers to the telephone operators.
The new bill will also aim to add stronger legislation to the sector, including creating a unified legal framework to prevent unwanted calls.
It also provides for tougher sanctions against companies that violate the rules including increasing the maximum fines possible for callers who abuse the trust of vulnerable callers, such as the elderly and disabled.
The maximum fine will increase from €375,000 to €500,000.
‘Balance’ needed, and some callers exempt?
Despite the new rules, the report also states that there is a need to “find a balance between employment and consumer protection”, to ensure that call centres can still do their job. As of 2020, call centres in France employed 24,000 people, show figures from national statistics bureau INSEE.
Similarly, polling institutes - which call people to ask them to take part in major surveys, rather than to sell them anything - have also asked to be exempted from the bill if it is adopted, and have said they are disappointed that the existing bill does not provide for this.
Food and home delivery companies will also be exempt from the law, as a way to “preserve local French services”, after MP Jean-Pierre Vigier put forward a ‘food exception’ rule, reports Le Dauphiné Libéré.
Scams still a risk
Despite its far-reaching aims, the bill is unlikely to do much to prevent phone scams, as fraudulent callers are unlikely to stick to the rules.
For example, they may use software to ‘spoof’ numbers, so they appear to be calling from permitted numbers, despite not actually doing so.
Read also: Scams in France: watch out for these telephone prefixes
However, the bill will aim to strengthen the powers of the data protection agency CNIL, the DGCCRF, and communications authority ARCEP to better control abuses of the existing rules. It will aim to crack down on some nuisance and/or illegal behaviour, such as callers who buy hundreds of SIM cards, and use them to send fraudulent text messages.
The DGCCRF checked 5,300 numbers in 2023, and imposed fines of €4.4 million for breach of the rules, but faces a huge task in keeping up with the sheer amount of canvassing and number of scam callers.
