Nuisance caller system set to be turned on its head

Nuisance marketing calls could be ended at a stroke with an MP’s plan for people to sign up to receive calls rather than the present system where they sign up to not have them.

Pierre Cordier, Ardennes, has proposed a law saying firms could only call people who had agreed to take calls – as is the case for emails and texts. Firms who ignore this would face fines of up to €300,000 against the present-day €75,000.

It would replace Bloctel which, despite three million people signing up, has failed to significantly reduce calls.

The government said last year that 150 businesses had been investigated after 400,000 complaints and 50 had been prosecuted, with half of them receiving the maximum €75,000 fine.