French village creates new ‘no door-to-door sales’ sticker

A commune in east France has created a ‘no door-to-door sales’ sticker for residents to put on their front doors as a decisive means to deter unwanted marketing visitors.

Nordhouse, a 1,800-inhabitant town in Bas-Rhin (Grand Est), has offered residents the stickers for free, and has also introduced sanctions for door-to-door salespeople who do not respect the rules. 

The sticker and rules have been in place since January 13 this year, when a municipal decree confirmed that “any unsolicited door-to-door sales are now subject to penalties”. Within a few days of the sticker becoming available, 40 stickers had already been given out. They are available from the mairie.

The stickers have a red circle with a strike through of an icon of someone knocking on a door, and state: “Je réfuse le démarchage à domicile (I refuse door-to-door selling).” They also cite the new municipal decree number and its article numbers in the Code de la consummation (consumer code, Articles L221-10-1 and L242-7-1).

Heavy penalties

The rules have come into force as residents, many of whom are increasingly elderly, have felt under rising attack from door-to-door salespeople. Some of these marketers have been dishonest, some residents have reported, and appear to intentionally visit after dark to make residents feel more vulnerable and under-pressure.

Anyone who disregards the new sticker will be subject to heavy municipal penalties.

“The salesperson risks one year in jail and a €150,000 fine,” said Bruno Jaremczuk, head of the Pays d'Erstein municipal police department, to France 3.

Older residents deliberately targeted

The commune already had strict rules on door-to-door sales, including requiring companies to register with the mairie two weeks before they wanted to begin sales, and only visit during pre-arranged time slots. This was partly to reduce annoyance to visitors, to prevent scams, and unscrupulous practices.

Yet, the commune has now gone further, because “residents were still complaining about being solicited”, said Mayor Jean-Marie Rohmer.

He said that one resident had recently been persuaded to sign a quote for more than €5,000, for “work that should have cost a maximum of €1,200”.

"[Residents under pressure] are generally between 65 and 85 years old, and the scammers know exactly who to target. They come back repeatedly and put pressure on them. It is unacceptable,” he said.

From this frustration, the new sticker campaign was born.

“We called in a law firm to study the legal feasibility of the idea [and] the project was launched. It is an effective way of protecting vulnerable people in the village and ensuring peace and quiet for everyone,” he said.

The mayor said that he does not know if such a sticker scheme “exists elsewhere”, but his commune is far from the only one whose residents have suffered from door-to-door scammers.

Scam alert

Just last week, an elderly couple in the commune of Mouleydier in Dordogne (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) reported that they had been scammed of almost €3,000 by a man at their door, who pretended to be working on the commune’s flowerbeds.

The man asked for a payment of €14.40, but instead typed in €1,440 on his bank card reader, reported Sud Ouest. He then said that the transaction had not gone through, and asked the couple to tap their card again. In reality, it had gone through, and subsequently went through twice.