New rules relating to telephone canvassing come into force on 1er January 2023. Commercial platforms will no longer be able to use mobile numbers (starting with 06 or 07) or geographic numbers (starting with 01 to 05). They must use an identifier starting with 09 37, 09 38 or 09 39.
Good news for consumers harassed by direct sellers: from this Sunday, they should be (a little) calmer. The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Posts and Press Distribution (Arcep), in a decision dated 1er septemberhas banned certain types of telephone numbers to commercial companies in general and canvassing platforms in particular, which will no longer be able to use them to make mass calls or send unsolicited SMS.
Arcep’s decision prohibits companies from using numbers starting with 06 or 07. These numbers are associated in the minds of individuals with mobile devices and therefore obtain better response rates than fixed numbers, hence their diversion by canvassing companies. The use of so-called “geographic” numbers (beginning with 01 to 05 depending on the region from which they come) is also prohibited.
From 1er January 2023, canvassing platforms will therefore only be able to use numbers beginning with:
Please note that these numbers may also be used by companies in their relations with customers: drivers of passenger vehicles with drivers, parcel deliverers, after-sales service employees, etc.
Through this measure, Arcep aims to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology by reducing cold calling, but also to protect consumers. The Autorité indicates that it has received “multiple reports from users through its “J’alerte l’Arcep” platform which testified to the use of 10-digit mobile numbers for the mass sending of so-called A2P SMS messages (1), often for advertisements, even fraudulent in certain cases”.
Canvassing for the CPF prohibited
Another evolution in this 1er January: the ban on canvassing linked to personal training accounts (CPF). The faroh 2022-1587 of December 19, 2022 aimed at combating fraud in the personal training account and prohibiting canvassing of its holders prohibits “any commercial prospecting of the holders of a personal training account, by telephone, by message from an interpersonal communications service, by e-mail or on an online social network service aimed at collecting their personal data, including the amount of duties […] and enter into contracts. Violation of this provision is punishable by a fine of up to €75,000 for a natural person and €375,000 for a legal person.
Canvassing remains authorized if it is linked to a training action in progress between the account holder and the training organization.
The UFC-Que Choisir regretted, after the vote of the deputies, that the legislation takes “the gigantic problem of canvassing unsolicited by the small end of the telescope”.
“After banning canvassing in the field of energy renovation and framed the one on insurancethis time, it is the training market that is targeted”, observes the association. It regrets that these sectoral restrictions “intervene each time late, after thousands of victims have been tricked” and believes that he “would be much more effective to purely and simply prohibit unsolicited canvassing”, as she has been asking for years.
(1) Application to Person: message sent by a platform to an end user.
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