Parliament ratifies ban on non-consensual telephone canvassing
By The New Obs with AFP
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A receptionist at a hotel in Paris, December 31, 2024. ADIL BENAYACHE/SIPA
Soon, the end of unwanted calls to "take advantage of state aid" or "change operator" : Parliament definitively ratified this Wednesday, May 21, the ban on telephone canvassing without consumer consent.
A final vote by the Senate on a proposed law against "public aid fraud" allowed this initiative to succeed, after long back-and-forths in the two chambers of Parliament .
The idea is simple: prohibit companies from soliciting by telephone "directly or through a third party acting on its behalf" a person "who has not previously expressed their consent" in a "free, specific, informed, unequivocal and revocable" manner. It will be up to the company to prove that the consumer has clearly expressed their agreement to be solicited by telephone. The only exception provided for: when the solicitation occurs "in the context of the execution of an ongoing contract" .
Protecting “the most vulnerable”The measure was adopted in the Senate in November at the initiative of Horizons Senator Pierre-Jean Verzelen, then in a dedicated text taken up in the National Assembly in March. It has finally reached the end of its legislative journey through its introduction, by an amendment from Green MP Delphine Batho , in this broader text, supported by the government.
"We are fed up with being constantly sold heat pumps or windows ," declared Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of Public Accounts, welcoming a measure which will protect "the most vulnerable, the oldest, those who sometimes do not realise that this telephone harassment is nothing other than the showcase for enormous fraud and theft schemes."
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The parliamentarians wanted to react because the current Bloctel system , which requires consumers to register on a list if they want to be spared from canvassing, has not proven effective. The text also prohibits commercial prospecting by electronic means – email, SMS, social networks, etc. – in the energy renovation and housing adaptation sectors.
“One year to get organized”This text corresponds "to a long-standing demand from consumers" and puts an end to "a method of commercial prospecting that no longer has any reason to exist" , welcomes Benjamin Recher, in charge of institutional relations at UFC-Que Choisir. According to one of their surveys in October 2024, 97% of French people say they are annoyed by commercial canvassing .
The text provides for this system to come into force in August 2026. A delay regretted by some parliamentarians, while others would have liked to see an exception voted by the Assembly retained for food companies, for example those delivering frozen foods to individuals.
The agreement reached by MPs and senators in the joint committee "was to say that stakeholders would have a year to organize themselves, but that no exceptions would be made" for any sector, Pierre-Jean Verzelen explained to AFP.
Fight against fraudThe text also includes an "arsenal" to "effectively combat fraud in public aid" , which represents around 1.6 billion euros each year, according to Macronist MP Thomas Cazenave , who introduced the text in the Assembly.
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