France's fraud and consumer protection authority, the Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes (DGCCRF), revealed on Friday, September 11, that it had recorded 26,000 additional reports of telemarketing calls on its official platform SignalConso in the month since a new law banning unsolicited cold-calling took effect on August 11.
The figure marks a sharp jump compared with activity earlier in the year. Between January 1 and August 10, the DGCCRF had recorded around 64,000 reports in total, meaning the roughly nine-month tally was barely three times the number logged in the single month after the ban began.
The DGCCRF disclosed the numbers in response to questions from the French outlet TF1info. France Info had reported the surge in complaints earlier that same Friday morning.
What the New Law Bans
Under the law, which has been in force for a month, a telemarketer can no longer contact a consumer without consent for commercial purposes. The main exceptions are companies with which the consumer already has a contract, such as a phone operator or gas supplier, provided that company has explicitly asked the consumer for permission and received it, and calls made for general-interest surveys.
The law also flips the default assumption, treating consumers as non-consenting unless they say otherwise. It further restricts cold-calling to weekdays, excluding public holidays, and only between 10am and 1pm and between 2pm and 8pm, unless the consumer has explicitly agreed to be called at a specific date and time.
Too Early to Draw Conclusions
The surge in reports raises the question of whether the new ban has already been widely flouted. Contacted by TF1info, the Ministry of Economy's press service urged caution, saying it was, at this stage, too early to draw conclusions from these figures about the number of calls actually being received by consumers.
End of Bloctel Merges Reports Onto One Platform
Part of the explanation lies in a change to how complaints are collected. The new law scrapped Bloctel, the government tool launched in 2016 that let consumers register on an opt-out list against cold-calling and separately report abusive calls. Deemed ineffective, Bloctel was discontinued on August 11, meaning all reports now funnel into the single SignalConso platform, where previously consumers could file with either service.
The DGCCRF said this consolidation likely explains much of the jump. Between January and July, Bloctel had been receiving between 8,000 and 19,000 reports a month, adding up to close to 9,000 reports between January 1 and August 10, according to the ministry service. It said a significant share of that volume logically shifted over to SignalConso once Bloctel closed on August 11.
Complaints Cover More Than Consent Violations
The DGCCRF said the 26,000 reports filed on SignalConso cover all complaints about illicit canvassing, whether that involves a failure to respect consent rules or cold-calling tied to energy renovation offers. The fraud authority said the rise in reports does not, for now, reflect an actual increase in unwanted calling practices.
A Possible Effect of the Publicity Campaign
The DGCCRF also pointed to the extensive public communication around the law over the summer, saying this could have led to a rise in reports on SignalConso. Numerous awareness campaigns publicised the new rules and the tightened legislation in the weeks before and after it took effect, which may have made more consumers aware that the platform existed and that they could use it to file a complaint.
It remains to be seen in the coming months whether the number of reports keeps climbing or whether the current spike proves to be a temporary surge tied to the law's rollout. The measure is the third piece of legislation in 15 years aimed at curbing abusive telemarketing in France.
