Cold calling in France: what the law has required of businesses since 11 August 2026

Until summer 2026, cold calling in France worked on an opt-out basis: an individual who no longer wanted to be called could register their number free of charge on Bloctel, the national do-not-call list, and businesses were prohibited from cold calling registered people, subject to exceptions set out in the French Consumer Code. Article 13 of Law No. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025 on combating all fraud involving public aid rewrote Article L223-1 of the French Consumer Code, with an entry into force set for 11 August 2026.

The text now reads as follows (our translation): “It is prohibited to cold call by telephone, directly or through a third party acting on one’s behalf, a consumer who has not previously expressed their consent to being the subject of commercial prospecting by this means.” Consent is defined there as a free, specific, informed, unambiguous and revocable expression of will, given by a clear affirmative act. It is up to the business to prove that it obtained it.

A direct consequence, noted by Service-public.fr, the French government’s official information site: since cold calling is now prohibited by default, the Bloctel service ceased to exist on 11 August 2026. The former Articles L223-3 and L223-4, which concerned the opt-out list, have been repealed since that date.

Decree No. 2026-662 of 23 July 2026 sets out the practical arrangements. The consent request, which must be clear and understandable, must in particular state the identity of the business (and, where applicable, of the third party acting on its behalf), the nature of the goods or services concerned, the period during which the consumer agrees to be called, the option of withdrawing consent at any time and the option of accessing proof of their consent. According to the decree, a pre-written statement by which the consumer acknowledges agreeing to be called, without their express agreement, does not constitute a clear affirmative act; the CNIL, France’s data protection authority, also points out that using a pre-ticked box to obtain consent is prohibited.

The period during which the consumer agrees to be called may not exceed one year from when consent was obtained, and consent cannot be renewed tacitly. The evidence must be kept for three years from the date it was obtained and provided free of charge to the consumer on request during that period. The consumer may withdraw consent at any time, including orally, by means that may not be more complicated than those used to obtain it.

Article L223-2 adds an obligation to inform: when a business collects a phone number, it must tell the consumer that any telephone solicitation for commercial purposes requires their prior consent.

Article D223-9 of the French Consumer Code, in the version in force since 11 August 2026, only allows a consumer to be contacted for prospecting purposes from Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays, from 10 am to 1 pm and 2 pm to 8 pm, in the consumer’s time zone. The same business, directly or through a third party, may not call or attempt to call the same consumer more than four times in thirty calendar days. Article L223-1 allows calls outside these days and hours only if the consumer has explicitly agreed to be called on a precisely specified date and time, and the business can prove it.

During the call, Article L221-16 requires a business that contacts a consumer by phone with a view to concluding a contract to state clearly, precisely and understandably, at the very start of the conversation, its identity, where applicable the identity of the person on whose behalf it is calling, and the commercial nature of the call. If the consumer objects to the call continuing, it must end without delay and they must not be contacted again. Following a cold call, the offer must be confirmed on paper or on a durable medium, and the consumer is only bound once they have signed and accepted it on a durable medium.

Finally, Article L221-17 prohibits the use of a withheld number when a business contacts a consumer in this context: the number displayed must be assigned to the business on whose behalf the call is made.

The prohibition does not apply when the solicitation takes place as part of performing an existing contract and relates to its subject matter, including to offer related or complementary products or services, or ones likely to improve its performance or quality. Under Article L223-5, it also does not apply to prospecting for the supply of newspapers, periodicals or magazines.

Certain sectors are closed to cold calling, except for solicitations under an existing contract: Article L223-1 covers offering services, selling equipment or carrying out works on homes to adapt them for ageing or disability, to save energy or to produce renewable energy. For these sectors, the decree of 23 July 2026 (Article R223-4) specifies that a call made to answer a consumer’s request for information is not considered prospecting, subject to three conditions: the business can prove the request was genuine, the call is made within the following five working days, and it covers only the goods or services the consumer asked to be called about. The CNIL also states that cold calling is completely prohibited for the compte personnel de formation (CPF), France’s personal training account scheme.

The consent regime protects the “consumer”, defined by the preliminary article of the French Consumer Code as any natural person acting for purposes outside their commercial, industrial, craft, professional or agricultural activity. Prospecting other businesses (B2B) follows a different logic: according to the CNIL, it may rely on the organisation’s legitimate interest when the subject of the solicitation relates to the profession of the person contacted, provided they have been informed and can object simply and free of charge. Note: these CNIL rules cover telephone prospecting without an automated calling system. For prospecting using an automated calling system, Article L223-7 of the French Consumer Code refers to Article L34-5 of the French Post and Electronic Communications Code; using an automated voice agent for prospecting must therefore be assessed against that text.

Service calls to existing customers, such as confirming an appointment or following up an open file, have a different purpose: the texts cited cover cold calling, that is, commercial prospecting. The CNIL specifies that the existing-contract exception can include information or steps related to performing the contract, as well as offering complementary products or services; on the other hand, a call about offers unrelated to the contract requires prior consent. The texts do not specifically define these service calls: everything depends on the actual content of the conversation.

In practice, keeping scripts for these calls strictly informative, introducing yourself clearly at the start of the call and processing customer data in line with the GDPR (Article L223-6 states that these rules apply without prejudice to the French Data Protection Act, the loi Informatique et Libertés) limits the risk of the calls being reclassified. This guide sets out the general framework and is not legal advice: for a specific case (sector, contact list, script, outsourced calling), have your set-up checked by a lawyer or legal adviser.

Article L242-16 punishes any breach of Articles L223-1 to L223-5 with an administrative fine of up to €75,000 for a natural person and €375,000 for a legal entity; the decision of the administrative authority responsible for competition and consumer affairs is published at the expense of the party penalised. The same ceilings apply to breaches of the obligations in Article L221-16, including caller identification (Article L242-12), and to the ban on withheld numbers (Article L242-14).

There is also a civil penalty: Article L223-1 renders void any contract concluded with a consumer following a cold call made in breach of these rules, and presumes liable any business that has benefited from such a breach, unless it proves that it was not responsible for it. Bringing practices into compliance generally involves a log of time-stamped consents, filtered call lists, configured calling windows and scripts that announce the business’s identity; the exact content should be defined with an adviser.

Alyas, an AI voice agent that answers businesses’ phones, can also make outbound calls, set up with our assistance, for service calls to your customers: confirming appointments, following up on files, calling back customers who have asked for it. Using Alyas does not, however, make a prospecting campaign automatically compliant: respecting consent, calling hours and the applicable rules remains the responsibility of the business making the calls.