Forbidden telephone canvassing: what are the new rules?

Currently, unsolicited solicitation by phone, SMS, email or via social networks is 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 industries from calling you, you can enter your number on the free Bloctel service. All professionals are forbidden to carry out telephone canvassing 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

As of August 11, telephone canvassing will be prohibited as a matter of principle for companies in all sectors of activity. A company can contact you by phone, for canvassing, only in the following 2 cases:

• The appeal is about a contract you entered into. The company may, for example, offer you additional products or services, or an offer to improve the service provided to you or the performance of it.
• The company in question will obtained your prior consent to be solicited for commercial prospecting. Your consent must have been expressed in a « freely » and « informed » manner, and « by a clear positive act »; you may also at any time decide to withdraw your consent to be solicited, and thus prohibit a company from contacting you again for commercial solicitation.

The companies will, when they call you, respect the days and hours of authorization of telephone canvassing. Currently, 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 prohibited on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays.

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

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