French MPs vote in favour of ban on sales calls unless consent has been given
Consumers will need to give written consent to receive calls
The Senate now need to pass the bill before it can become official legislation
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The French parliament has voted to ban cold callers from contacting consumers unless they have ‘opted in’ to such calls or are already clients of the business.
The ban was included in an amendment to a wider bill aimed at combatting fraudsters accessing public funds.
The overall bill was passed via a unanimous vote in the Assemblée nationale and has the support of government ministers.
It will need to be approved by the Senate before it becomes law, however the upper political chamber is likely to back the measure due to its widespread support.
Existing customers can be contacted
The legislation states it will be “forbidden, directly or through a third party acting on its behalf, to telephone a consumer who has not previously expressed his consent to be the subject of commercial prospecting by this means.”
Consumers will need to be sent a physical form or an email from where they consent to be opted-in to cold calls.
If they refuse, no company will be able to contact them without prior consent.
The main exception to this will be if a customer is already a client of a business, in which case they can be contacted regarding new offers and changes.
Green MP Delphine Batho added the amendment to the bill, and has been attempting to include some form of this in legislation since 2019.
Part of the Economic Affairs committee in the Assemblée nationale, she included the amendment to the bill last November which was kept in place by MPs.
Currently, France operates an ‘opt-out’ system with consumers signing up to the government ‘Bloctel’ service, which in theory companies should check before making cold calls.
Read more: Tips to limit cold calls to your home in France
Fighting fraud
The wider bill attempts to fight fraud relating to public funds, particularly from companies.
Companies can apply for public funding through various schemes such as eco-renovation projects, however some do not pay the correct amounts onto their customers, or do not carry out the works they were expected to.
Those found guilty of doing this will be temporarily banned from accessing public funds under the bill.
An increased information sharing programme to help combat fraud is also included in the bill.
“The aim is simple: to act quickly to prevent public funds falling into the hands of fraudsters who are often difficult to trace once the sums have been misappropriated,” said its creator MP Thomas Cazenave.
Read more: Scams: How to avoid SIM swapping in France
