No more phone calls at all hours of the day, night and all year round. From this Wednesday, March 1, the legislator is cleaning up telephone canvassing. The implementing decree for the Naegelen law voted in July 2022, named after the Vosges deputy Christophe Naegelen – member of the Liot group (Freedoms, independents, overseas territories and territories) in the National Assembly – who tabled it, between finally in force after several months of waiting.
From now on, telephone calls for unsolicited commercial prospecting purposes are only authorized from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays but also public holidays, they are strictly prohibited. “It is a question of preserving the rest of our fellow citizens”, justifies the cabinet of Olivia Grégoire, the Minister Delegate in charge of small and medium-sized enterprises.
“The consumer can also register on the list of opposition to canvassing”
In addition, the decree also prohibits the same professional or a person who works for the latter calling a consumer more than four times a month. Finally, it stipulates that, if during a telephone canvassing, the individual indicates that he refuses this type of call, the professional has the obligation to refrain from contacting him or attempting to do so before expiry of a period of sixty days.
“The consumer can also register on the list of opposition to canvassing, called Bloctel, recalls the office of Olivia Grégoire. It already existed before the law. But normally, once you are registered, you cannot be contacted again. A study by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) carried out three years ago had however shown that out of 791 establishments inspected, 49 administrative reports and three criminal reports had been drawn up for not respecting the rules. A Val-d’Oise company, which had called 415 consumers registered on “Bloctel”, had thus been sanctioned.
In all cases, if a consumer is canvassed illegally, he has the possibility of reporting the offense to the DGCCRF via the Signal Conso site. In the event of violation of the decree, a natural person incurs a fine of 75,000 euros and 375,000 euros for a legal person.
The sector employs 56,000 people
It should be noted that cold calling remains prohibited for the sale of equipment or the carrying out of work for housing with a view to achieving energy savings or the production of renewable energies. Thus, still in 2020, the DGCCRF had sanctioned a Gard company to the tune of 342,230 euros for not having respected this rule.
Another clarification, the text only applies to commercial telephone canvassing. In other words, public administrations, such as the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) which uses the telephone for its studies but also the pollsters are not subject to the decree. “Anyway, they already had a code of good conduct,” sweeps Olivia Grégoire’s cabinet.
And for those wondering why those often nasty phone calls didn’t simply get banned, the Department of Small and Medium Enterprises recalls that the sector directly employs 56,000 people. “We have taken an arbitration which is both to better protect the peace of mind of consumers but also to allow companies, in particular SMEs, which also need these relays to develop, to use cold calling”, justifies Bercy.