![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786493136_66_spam-call.jpg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
FILE – Man receives call from unknown number. (Getty Images) <\/p>\n
France has officially banned unsolicited telemarketing calls.<\/p>\n
The new law is aimed at protecting consumers from intrusive sales pitches and shielding vulnerable people from fraudulent commercial practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The law went into effect on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Telemarketing calls and constant complaints <\/p>\n
The backstory:<\/p>\n
Previously in France, people who wanted to avoid marketing calls had to register their number with a government-run service, but consumer groups said some call centers ignored the list.<\/p>\n
Now, “businesses are prohibited from contacting consumers without their prior consent,” said Alice Vilcot, chief of staff at the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Prevention of Fraud. “That consent can be withdrawn at any time.”<\/p>\n
The government says the law is a response to years of consumer complaints. Authorities estimate that about three-quarters of people in France receive at least one unsolicited sales call every week, and many receive more.<\/p>\n
In 2024, 11 consumer organizations issued a joint call for a ban, denouncing “relentless harassment of consumers through countless unwanted telemarketing calls to both landlines and mobile phones \u2014 an intrusion that has become a regular part of their daily lives.”<\/p>\n
Parliament approved the law last year.<\/p>\n
Up to $435,000 in fines <\/p>\n
Dig deeper:<\/p>\n
Telemarketers who make illegal calls could be fined up to $87,000 (75,000 euros) per call.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Companies that solicit these types of phone calls could face fines of up to $435,000 (375,000 euros) per call.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The only exception is if consumers consent to receiving marketing calls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other countries with unsolicited call restrictions <\/p>\n
Germany has had a similar ban in place since 2009.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands recently tightened rules on telemarketing calls this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the United States, people can sign up for the national Do Not Call\u00a0registry<\/a>, which cuts down on unwanted sales calls, Canada has its own Do Not Call\u00a0list<\/a>, while the U.K. has the Telephone Preference\u00a0Service<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Britain, companies that call people who have opted out can be fined up to 500,000 pounds ($670,000) per call.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this article was taken from reporting by The Associated Press.\u00a0<\/p>\n World<\/a>Technology<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FILE – Man receives call from unknown number. (Getty Images) France has officially banned unsolicited telemarketing calls.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,6,244,35],"class_list":["post-64003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-france","tag-news","tag-technology","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}