Phone canvassing soon over on weekends and during the lunch break on weekdays? In any case, this is what the decree published by the cabinet of Olivia Grégoire, Minister in charge of SMEs and Trade, promises.
For several years now, the French government has multiplied measures to put an end to abusive telephone canvassing. After the failure of Bloctel in 2020, the French authorities were expected to turn on this particular subject.
In January 2020, the government notably presented certain measures envisaged to combat fraud and abuse related to cold calling. In particular, it was a question of authorizing telephone canvassing during very specific time slots, namely from Monday to Saturday during office hours.
A decree to ban commercial calls on weekends
However, Olivia Grégoire, the Minister in charge of SMEs and Trade, has just publish on October 17, 2022 a decree finally setting official limits to this practice. As of March 1, 2023, advertising calls will be authorized from Monday to Friday onlybetween 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. No calls will be tolerated on weekends. “Until now, if no legal text regulated this practice, the virtuous canvassers agreed to contact potential customers between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday”. assures the Minister.
In addition, call centers will no longer be able to make multiple attempts to reach you. Indeed, they will now be limited to only four attempts. As our colleagues remind of the Parisiansome consumer associations denounce a measure that is far too light, and are calling for a much stricter framework for commercial calls.
Preserving jobs in the sector, the government’s other objective
But for Olivia Grégoire’s firm, it was also important to preserve jobs in this sector. “But we had to find a good compromise between consumer expectations and maintaining employment in this sector. In France, call centers employ 56,000 people. They are located in underprivileged employment areas and often recruit young people without qualifications”, explains the former government spokesperson.
Of course, if you notice any abuse, it will always be possible to report them on the Bloctel platform. For the moment, 211,000 complaints have been filed in 2022. As a reminder, the National Assembly tabled a bill in August 2022 to put an end to telephone scams around the CPF. It was examined at first reading in the Hemicycle on October 6, 2022.
