Trade Calls

From 11 August 2026

Forbidden telephone canvassing: what are the new rules?

Publié le 21 juillet 2026 - Mise à jour le 11 août 2026 - Public Service / (Prime Minister)

As of August 11, 2026, telephone canvassing for commercial purposes is prohibited, except in certain cases. Public Service introduces you to changes.

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Telephone solicitation before August 11, 2026

Before August 11, 2026, unsolicited solicitation by phone, SMS, email or via social networks was prohibited for professionals in a few sectors of activity, such as energy renovation and adaptation of housing to disability and old age.

To prevent companies from other sectors from being solicited by telephone, it was possible to register their number on the toll-free Bloctel service. All professionals were forbidden to make telephone solicitation with a person registered on the Bloctel list, except in certain situations provided for by the Consumer Code.

What changes as of August 11, 2026

Since 11 August, telephone canvassing has been prohibited as a matter of principle for companies in all sectors of activity. A company can contact a person by phone, for canvassing, only in the following 2 cases:

  • The call is for an ongoing contract, and the solicitation relates to the subject matter of that contract. A company may, for example, offer one of its customers complementary products or services, or an offer aimed at improving the service provided or the performance of the latter.
  • The company in question obtained in advance the consent of the consumer to be solicited for commercial prospecting. Consent must be expressed in a « free » and « informed » manner, and « by a clear positive act. »

Please note

The consent of a consumer to be solicited for a possible telephone canvassing can be collected during a purchase, a visit to a store or via a form, for example. In obtaining such consent, the company must clearly ask the consumer whether or not he or she consents to being contacted by telephone for commercial purposes, and must indicate to the consumer the nature of the goods or services for which his or her consent is sought.

The company must also indicate the length of time he consents to be contacted by telephone. This duration may not exceed, in any event, one year ; and his consent cannot be tacitly renewed. A person may also at any time decide to withdraw his or her consent to be requestedand thus prohibit a company from contacting it again for commercial solicitation. The procedures for a consumer to withdraw his consent must be simple (this can even be done only orally).

When calling a consumer, companies must respect the days and hours of authorization of telephone canvassing. As a reminder, telephone canvassing is permitted only from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.; and it is forbidden on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays.

A company may derogate from these obligations only if a person has explicitly consented to be called on a date and time outside the periods of authorization for telephone canvassing; the date and time must have been precisely indicated to him.

Please note

Any contract concluded since August 11, following a telephone solicitation not respecting the new terms is not valid.

It is up to the professionals to prove that consent is obtained respecting the rules laid down (« a free, specific, enlightened, unambiguous and revocable manifestation of will […] »).

If a person suffers from abusive telephone solicitation, she can make it known on the Signal Conso platform, a French general directorate for fair trading, consumer affairs and fraud control service (DGCCRF).

The Consumer Code provides, moreover, that the prohibition on canvassing does not apply to prospecting related to the sale of subscriptions to newspapers, periodicals or magazines.

Please note

Telephone canvassing is prohibited by default, the Bloctel service ceased to exist on August 11, 2026.

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