FOCUSWORD: France telemarketing consent law
As of Tuesday, August 11, the tables have turned on telemarketers in France. In what the office of Commerce Minister Serge Papin describes as a “small revolution,” companies must now obtain explicit prior consent before they can legally dial a consumer’s number to prospect for new clients.
From Opt-Out to Opt-In: A Fundamental Shift
The core logic of telemarketing has been inverted. “France is moving from an opt-out regime to a prior consent regime,” explains a source close to Minister Papin. This means a company can only call you if you have actively given your permission. A pre-checked box on a form is no longer valid. Consent must be given through a clear action, such as ticking a specific box during an online purchase, replying positively to an email, or signing a physical form in a store.
Alice Vilcot-Dutarte, spokesperson for the DGCCRF (the French consumer protection agency), detailed the three mandatory characteristics of this consent. It must require a consumer action, be informed by clearly stating the identity of the company and the purpose of the call, and be revocable at any time, including during a call itself.
Strict Schedules and a Monthly Call Limit
Even with your green light, telemarketers face tight operational constraints. Calls are strictly limited to weekdays, from Monday to Friday. They can only be made during two specific windows: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Furthermore, a hard cap of four calls per month per company has been imposed to prevent consumer harassment.
The Fine Print: Who Can Still Call?
This new framework isn’t absolute. A significant exception exists for your existing service providers. Your bank, insurer, mobile operator, or energy supplier can still contact you to promote their own offers, as your contract establishes a pre-existing relationship. The law also permits unsolicited calls for specific activities, including newspaper subscription sales, charitable donations, and humanitarian initiatives.
Conversely, certain sectors remain completely blacklisted, reinforcing existing bans. These include energy-efficient home renovations, adaptation of homes for the elderly, and training offers linked to the CPF personal training account. While these rules were already on the books, they were often flouted by fraudsters.
Heavy Fines and Cross-Border Enforcement
The new law packs a punitive punch. All companies, including those based abroad targeting French consumers, must comply. Sanctions for abusive calls have been dramatically increased, with fines reaching up to €375,000 per illegal call for a corporate entity. The DGCCRF has confirmed its ability to pursue and sanction foreign firms, as it has done in recent years under the previous legal framework.
Will It Really Stop the Nuisance?
While the government hails a law that ends a “daily nuisance for millions of French people,” skepticism remains. The previous Bloctel opt-out registry was widely considered a failure. Cybersecurity expert Jérémie Schram of WatchGuard Technologies predicts that legitimate companies will simply shift to other channels like SMS or email. He warns that the calls that persist will likely come from fraudsters who will move their operations abroad, beyond the reach of French sanctions.
To combat this, both the government and the DGCCRF are urging consumers to report any fraudulent calls—whether a simple unauthorized call or an outright scam attempt—on the official Signal Conso platform.
