This centrist bill has been going back and forth for two years, before being definitively adopted by Parliament on July 15. The new law against abusive telephone canvassing has just been promulgated. It punishes deviations more severely and even prohibits any telephone prospecting for energy renovation work.
The text, registered in the Olympics on Saturday, notably prohibits any solicitation for energy renovation, a sector where unscrupulous companies take advantage of public subsidies to abuse households.
"Any commercial prospecting of consumers by professionals, by telephone, for the purpose of selling equipment or carrying out work for housing with a view to achieving energy savings or the production of renewable energies is prohibited ”, states the text. Building professionals themselves had called for this ban.
Fines up to 375,000 euros
For other sectors, the penalties have been raised to fight harassment and fraudulent calls from people who are registered on Bloctel, the anti-canvassing list. Administrative fines will now reach 75,000 euros for individuals and 375,000 euros for companies, against 3,000 and 15,000 euros currently.
In particular, the law obliges “all professionals” to ensure that their prospecting files comply with the Bloctel list, by contacting the body responsible for managing it. Once online with the consumer, he must also indicate to him that any individual can register for free on the list of opposition to canvassing if he wishes.
A decree will still have to determine the days, hours and frequency on which telephone canvassing will be authorized. At the time of the parliamentary debate, all the groups had highlighted the “scourge” of canvassing which “poisons the lives” of the French.
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On behalf of the government, Minister Delegate for Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher had praised "a balanced position". But some considered the text "insufficient". The deputy Delphine Batho saw there "a missed opportunity", and regretting a framework of the canvassing "where we want to end it".