Cold calling: towards the death of unsolicited calls?
The grumbling of consumers exasperated by telemarketing has -finally- been heard by the State, which is increasingly regulating the call center sector... Indeed, in a decree published in the Official Journal on Friday, October 14, the government has just set the conditions for regulating telemarketing (a little over two years after the enactment of an law on the subject in July 2020). The decree sets the days and hours during which telemarketing for commercial purposes is allowed or prohibited.
What does the law say?
Starting March 1, 2023, service providers in the sector will be subject to stricter rules for their telemarketing activities. The implementing decree of the law aimed at regulating telemarketing and combating fraudulent calls will limit the legal time frame for telemarketing. It will only be allowed from 10 AM to 1 PM and from 2 PM to 8 PM. It will be prohibited on weekends. Another change is that salespeople will no longer be allowed to contact a consumer more than four times per month on behalf of the same company. If the person on the other end refuses telemarketing, they cannot be contacted again for sixty days from the date of refusal. These new provisions add to another regulation decided by Arcep, which prohibits, since January 1, the use of numbers beginning with 06 or 07 for automated calls made by call center software. These calls made from predictive dialers or progressive dialers with answering machine detection must be made from a category of special numbers: NPV (verified multi-purpose numbers). This obligation aims to clearly identify the order giver behind a particular number, and thus guarantee the traceability of calls. In cases where the order giver's consent is not established, telecommunications operators must block these outgoing calls.
What are the penalties for non-compliance?
The penalties for non-compliance with the telemarketing opposition list by professionals can go up to €75,000 for an individual and €375,000 for a corporate entity. This is enough to make professionals tremble and encourage strict adherence to these rules.
Is it a growing burden for call centers?
Call centers are somewhat paying the consequences of the practices of these unscrupulous market players... These new regulations, which are a continuation of Bloctel, raise concerns and naturally lead to questions. The decree on time slots will likely negatively impact the smaller service providers, a good portion of whose business relies on outbound calls. Moreover, it could also encourage outsourcing. Nevertheless, some call centers have not waited for the law regulating time slots to adopt healthier practices, partly thanks to suitable tools. Especially with omnichannel becoming a necessity!
