Abusive telephone solicitation, voice or SMS spam: what to do? - Abusive telephone solicitation

Verified 26 mars 2021 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

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Published on 14 October 2022

The days, times and frequencies for which telephone canvassing is authorized are specified by a decree of 13 october 2022.

These provisions will come into force on the 1ster March 2023.

The information contained on this page remains current and will be amended as soon as the text enters into force.

Your situation

  • Abusive telephone solicitation
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We're talking about abusive telephone solicitation when you receive unwanted commercial telephone calls. For example, a company calls you to sell you a telephone subscription or to have you carry out work to reduce the energy consumption of your home.

Warning  

a purely malicious call (insult, threat...) is the responsibility of the telephone harassment. It's a crime. If you are prompted to call back a premium rate number, it is voice spam.

If you do not wish to be the subject of commercial telephone calls, you can register for free on a no-call list.

This is done on the Bloctel website:

Subscribe to the Bloctel list

By registering on this list, companies will no longer be able to call you to call you.

The following professionals have the right to call you:

  • Survey institute and non-profit association if they do not carry out commercial prospecting
  • Professional for the supply of newspapers, periodicals or magazines
  • Company with which you have a pre-existing contractual relationship. This company can call you if you're a customer at home and only if the commercial offer is relevant to your contract. This includes offers of products or services that are related to your contract or that are complementary to the subject of your contract or that are likely to improve its performance or quality.

Warning  

the contract concluded with a consumer as a result of a telephone solicitation carried out in breach of the registration on Bloctel is considered invalid and may be annulled in court.

The trader must ensure that his prospecting files comply with the Bloctel Do Not Call list.

To do this, he must contact the body that manages Bloctel (Opposetel) at least once a month if he usually does canvassing.

In other cases, it must do so before any telephone solicitation campaign.

Furthermore, at the beginning of each telephone call, the trader must give his identity or that of the person on whose behalf he is calling, and the commercial nature of his call.

This information must be given to you in a clear, precise and comprehensible manner.

Without indicating the identity and commercial nature, the trader may have to pay a fine up to €15,000.

The trader's phone number must also be displayed or you may be fined up to €375,000.

Please note

any contract concluded with an operator of electronic communications services (telephony, internet, television) must include information about the possibility of registering for free on Bloctel. Without this information, the operator may have to pay a fine of €15,000.

You must report it on the Bloctel website by filling out a declaration form accessible from your personal area. Your declaration is sent to the departmental services of the DGCCRF: titleContent carry out such investigations as they deem necessary.

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