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

Abusive telephone canvassing is characterized by the receipt of unsolicited commercial calls. This includes, for example, companies who contact you to offer products or services, such as a telephone subscription, without having obtained your prior consent to approach you by telephone.

Since August 11, 2026, a professional is in principle forbidden to approach you by telephone if you have not given your consent before the call.

Consent is the agreement you give to be solicited. It must be free, specific, enlightened, unambiguous and revocable.

This includes:

• that you must give your consent voluntarily,
• that you need to know which professional can call you and for which products or services,

• that your agreement must be clear and leave no doubt about your willingness to be called
• and that you must be able to withdraw your consent at any time.

The professional must be able to prove that you have given your consent.

Telephone canvassing without prior consent remains possible in 2 main cases:

• If you have a current contract with the professional and that the call concerned this contract. For example, your telephone operator may offer you an offer or service that is complementary to your subscription. It can also offer you an offer that will improve your subscription.
• To offer you newspapers, periodicals or magazines.

Before approaching you by telephone, the professional must obtain your consent by means of a clear and understandable request.

The request shall specify in particular the following:

• Identity of the professional and, if there is one, that of the third party calling on his behalf
• Products or services for which your consent is requested
• The fact that you can accept or refuse to be called
• Duration during which you agree to be solicited, which may not exceed 1 year
• Possibility to withdraw your consent at any time
• Possibility to request proof of your consent.

Your consent may be obtained by various means, for example on the internet or in a store.

Your consent must result from clear action on your part. For example, you can check a box that is not already checked and validate your choice.

Your agreement must be clear and leave no doubt that you have agreed to be approached.

The professional must be able to prove that your consent was obtained under the conditions provided for by law.

Your consent to telephone canvassing may be valid during 1 year maximum from the date you gave it.

The professional may foresee a shorter duration.

At the end of this period, your consent cannot be renewed automatically. The professional must obtain a new consent if necessary.

You may withdraw your consent before the end of this period.

The professional must allow you to withdraw your consent according to a procedure that cannot be more complex than that used to collect it.

The withdrawal may be expressed orally.

If, during a call, you object to the continuation of the communication, the professional must immediately terminate the call and refrain from contacting you again.

The professional must be able to prove that you have given your consent to telephone canvassing.

It must store and archive in digital format the information used to obtain your consent, as well as the date and time you gave it.

These elements must be kept for 3 years from the date of consent.

During this period, you can ask the professional for proof of your consent free of charge. He has to provide it to you on a durable support within a reasonable time.

Telephone canvassing is permitted only monday to friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

It is forbidden on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.

You may, however, have expressly agreed to be called on a specific date and time outside of those days and times. The trader must be able to prove this agreement.

Since August 11, 2026, special rules apply to telephone canvassing in certain sectors.

Telephone canvassing is prohibited when it concerns:

• works or services aimed at achieving energy savings or producing renewable energy,
• energy renovation works,
• works or services to adapt housing to aging or disability.

This prohibition applies even if you have given your consent to be solicited.

However, an exception is made when you yourself have requested to be called back for information about a product or service. In this case, the professional must be able to prove your request. The call must take place within 5 working days according to your request and relate only to the requested product or service.

Commercial canvassing for CPF is forbidden.

This prohibition applies in particular to canvassing by telephone, but also to canvassing by SMS, by email and by certain social network services.

Telephone solicitation in insurance is governed by strict rules.

These rules continue to apply in addition to the new general rules on consent to telephone canvassing.

Insurers must first get your consent to continue the call and stop the conversation if you are not interested.

There must be a 24-hour delay before signing a contract. Sales cannot be made on the first call.

Calls must be recorded and retained for 2 years.

Commercial canvassing platforms can no longer call you from numbers starting with 06 or 07.

They must use numbers starting with certain prefixes reserved for this purpose:

• For the metropolis: 01 62, 01 63, 02 70, 02 71, 03 77, 03 78, 04 24, 04 25, 05 68, 05 69, 09 48, 09 49.
• For the overseas departments and regions (Drom) 09 475 to 09 479.

In particular, these numbers make it easier to recognize canvassing calls or calls made by automated systems.

Since August 11, 2026, registration on Bloctel is no longer necessary to benefit from the protection against telephone canvassing. The new system is based on the prior consent of the consumer.

If you have given your consent to a professional and you no longer wish to be called, you can withdraw your consent at any time. You can do this orally during the call. The professional must then stop approaching you.

If you receive a commercial call without your consent, you can ask the professional to terminate the call.

If you continue to receive commercial calls without your consent or after withdrawing your consent, you can report the facts.

You can do this using Signal Conso:

Signal Conso: report a problem with a professional

You can also contact the French data protection agency, Cnil if your report concerns the use of your personal data for prospecting purposes.

The professional who does not respect the rules of telephone canvassing can be sanctioned.

In particular, he may receive an administrative fine of up to €75,000 for a natural person and €375,000 for a legal entity, by appeal.

This penalty may be applied in particular to:

• where the trader calls a consumer without obtaining his prior consent,

• or when it does not comply with the rules concerning the days and times of call,

• or when it does not comply with the rules concerning the frequency of calls.

The fine decision may also be published at the expense of the trader.

Moreover, where a contract is concluded following a telephone solicitation carried out in violation of the rules laid down by law, that contract is null.

Finally, when telephone lobbying is accompanied by an abuse of weakness or ignorance, the penalties are heavier. The professional may be sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment and €500,000 of fine. For a business, the amount of the fine may be increased to 10% of its average annual turnover, calculated on the last 3 known annual turnover figures.