New law to stop cold calls in France voted through in Assemblée

French senators and MPs have voted in favour of a law to bring extra regulation to unsolicited marketing cold calls, including an ‘opt-in’ policy, rather than the current ‘opt-out’ system.

The law was voted through in the Assemblée Nationale on May 21, and is set to come into force by August 2026.

It states that it is “against all forms of fraud involving public assistance’”, and aims to “prohibit companies from soliciting by telephone…directly or through a third party acting on their behalf” anyone “who has not previously given their consent” in a “free, specific, informed, unambiguous and revocable” manner.

The text also aims to prevent the automatic inclusion of landline numbers in public directories, and to authorise the sharing of information between anti-fraud agency la direction de la répression des fraudes (DGCCRF), tech freedom commission la Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (Cnil), and communications authority l’Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes (Arcep).

Read more: Debate begins on new law to crack down on telemarketing calls in France 
Read also: Crackdown law on nuisance cold calls in France backed by MPs 

Experts have said that this latest law will be more effective than other changes, reports FranceInfo, because it switches marketing consent from ‘opt-out’ to ‘opt-in’. This means that customers must ‘tick a box’ to authorise communication, rather than vice versa. Consent is no longer assumed.

The only exception is for people who are already signed up to a contract with a company. In this case, the company will be authorised to contact these customers to offer them a better deal.

Some sectors will be banned from unsolicited sales completely, including those selling home adaptation products aimed at the elderly or people with disabilities. Already, door-to-door selling is banned for people selling home renovation packages and personal training deals.

Severe penalties

The penalties for breaching the new laws will be severe. 

They will reach up to €75,000 for an individual, €350,000 for companies, and €500,000 and five years in jail for those considered to be taking advantage of vulnerable people.

Effective legislation

The new law aims to bring effective legislation to an area that has already seen frequent changes in recent years. 

These include limits on the phone numbers that marketers can use, the times they can call, how they ask permission to continue the call, and how often they can re-contact someone who has opted out.

Read also: Tips to avoid cold calls in France - and what to say if you get one 

Yet, many have said that existing systems do not work well enough. One example is Bloctel, a database on which people can register their number to opt out of calls. Yet, it only really works for landlines, and still leaves mobiles vulnerable. 

A recent survey by consumer association UFC-Que Choisir found that 97% of people in France are still frequently annoyed by marketing calls. SME Minister, Véronique Louwagie, recently said that people receive an average of six marketing calls per week.

After the initial vote in the Senate in April, president of UFC-Que Choisir, Marie-Amandine Stévenin, told the AFP that the move was “a historic victory for our association, which for many years has been documenting disputes arising from intrusive telephone canvassing and the telephone harassment faced by exasperated consumers”.

Thousands of jobs threatened?

The new law has not been welcomed by everyone, however. The Fédération de la Vente Directe (the French direct sales federation) has said that the changes could threaten thousands of jobs, particularly in places where other types of roles are more difficult to find.

The federation also claims that thousands of small businesses that rely on phone marketing will be penalised.

Data protection lawyer Hélène Lebon told FranceInfo that the new law will be ineffective. She said: “The people who make these calls do not care that laws like this exist. Before passing a new law, we need to make sure that the old laws are being enforced.”’ 

She said that companies often buy “databases in good faith…sometimes for several thousand euros, but do not know that they are purchasing data from people who do not want to be solicited”. 

She said the problem lies with intermediaries who collect the data, not the end companies.Separately MP Thomas Cazenave, who presented the text to the National Assembly, also said that it contains “an ‘arsenal’ of measures” to combat fraud involving ‘public aid’, which he said amounts to €1.6 billion per year.