Canvassing: the death of nuisance calls?

Consumers exasperated by telephone canvassing have finally been heard by the government, which is regulating the contact center sector ever more drastically... In a decree published in the Journal Officiel on Friday, October 14, the government has set out the terms and conditions for the regulation of telephone canvassing (just over two years after the promulgation ofa law on the subject in July 2020).The decree sets out the days and times during which telephone canvassing, for commercial purposes, is authorized or prohibited.

What does the law say? 

From March 1, 2023, service providers in the sector will be subject to stricter rules for their telemarketing activities. The decree implementing the law aimed at regulating telephone canvassing and combating fraudulent calls will limit the legal opening hours for telephone canvassing. It will only be authorized from 10am to 1pm and from 2pm to 8pm. It will be prohibited at weekends. Another change is that sales representatives will no longer be allowed to solicit a consumer more than four times a month on behalf of the same company. If the person on the other end of the line refuses the solicitation, they cannot be contacted again for sixty days from the date of refusal. These new provisions are in addition to another regulation, decided by Arcep, which prohibits, since January 1, the use of numbers beginning with 06 or 07, for automated calls dialed by contact center software. Calls made from predictive dialing systems, or progressive dialing with answering machine detection, will have to be made from a special category of numbers: NPVs (verified multipurpose numbers). This obligation should make it possible to clearly identify the originator behind a given number, and thus guarantee call traceability. If the originator's agreement is not established, telephone operators must block these outgoing calls.

What are the penalties for non-compliance?

Penalties for non-compliance with the "Do Not Contact" list can be as high as€75,000 forindividuals and€375,000 for legal entities. This is enough to make professionals tremble and encourage strict compliance with these rules.

A growing constraint for contact centers?

In a way, contact centers are paying the price for the practices of these less than virtuous market players... These new regulations, which follow on from Bloctel, are worrying and naturally raise questions. First and foremost, the decree on time slots is likely to have a negative impact on smaller service providers, who rely heavily on outbound calls. Nevertheless, some contact centers have not waited for the law on time slots to adopt healthier practices, thanks in part to adapted tools. Especially now that omnichannel communications are becoming a necessity!