France Bans Unsolicited Telemarketing Calls, Threatening Morocco's Call-Center Jobs
A new French opt-in law taking effect Aug. 11 bars cold sales calls without prior consent, with fines up to €375,000 per call.
Conversation activity · last 6 days peak 13/2h
Summary, timeline and people extracted by Claude from 60 items across 6 sources · 21h ago. Quotes are verbatim.
France's telemarketing ban, backed by President Emmanuel Macron's government, enters into force on Aug. 11, requiring companies to obtain prior consumer consent before making sales calls. The law replaces a widely-ignored opt-out no-call list and imposes fines up to €75,000 per call for individuals and €375,000 for companies, following years of consumer complaints that about three-quarters of French residents receive at least one unwanted sales call weekly. Morocco's government has warned the law could put up to 50,000 call-center jobs at risk, since French clients account for the bulk of the country's outsourcing industry revenue.
- France's opt-in telemarketing ban takes effect Aug. 11, 2026, replacing an opt-out no-call list that companies often ignored.
- Fines reach €75,000 per call for individuals and €375,000 for companies; a prior enforcement action fined one firm €6 million.
- About three-quarters of people in France reportedly receive at least one unsolicited sales call per week, prompting the law after years of complaints.
- Morocco's outsourcing sector, which depends heavily on French clients, warns the ban could threaten up to 50,000 jobs.
How it unfolded
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The law formally enters into force on Aug. 11, ending companies' ability to cold-call consumers without prior consent.
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Semafor reported that the French ban could jeopardize up to 50,000 jobs in Morocco's call-center industry, which relies heavily on French clients.
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AP reported that the law requires prior opt-in consent for marketing calls, sets fines up to €375,000 per call for companies, and lists exceptions such as existing contractual relationships.
“businesses are prohibited from contacting consumers without their prior consent”
Alice Vilcot · Hacker News ↗ -
Reaction Social reaction to the upcoming ban
Social media users reacted approvingly to news that France would ban unsolicited sales calls, noting other countries could follow suit.
“Oh, so it's doable...”
@lilsky.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗ - 83 weeks quiet
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Event French Parliament approves the law
Parliament passed the telemarketing ban legislation the previous year, ahead of its entry into force in August 2026.
- 52 weeks quiet
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Eleven French consumer organizations jointly called for a ban on unsolicited telemarketing, describing it as relentless harassment of consumers.
“relentless harassment of consumers through countless unwanted telemarketing calls to both landlines and mobile phones — an intrusion that has become a regular part of their daily lives”
11 French consumer organizations · Hacker News ↗
What people are saying verbatim
“businesses are prohibited from contacting consumers without their prior consent”
Alice Vilcot, Chief of staff, Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Prevention of Fraud · AP News ↗ · Aug 5
“That consent can be withdrawn at any time.”
Alice Vilcot, French consumer-protection official · AP News ↗ · Aug 5
“relentless harassment of consumers through countless unwanted telemarketing calls to both landlines and mobile phones — an intrusion that has become a regular part of their daily lives”
11 French consumer organizations, Consumer advocacy groups · AP News ↗ · Dec 31
“Pure telemarketing now represents only 15% to 20% of total activity”
Youssef Chraïbi, President, Moroccan Federation for Outsourcing Services · AP News (via Le Matin) ↗ · Aug 5
“Oh, so it's doable...”
@lilsky.bsky.social, Bluesky user · Bluesky ↗ · Aug 4
Voices from the web unedited
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In Spain we have something called "Lista Robinson" (in Sweden exists something similar, called "NIX-registret") which are basically opt-in lists where you can enter your phone number, then once the new lists been distributed, the telemarketing companies cannot call you, if they're doing things properly. If they call anyway, you just mention you're…
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No, it wouldn't, because Norway has tons of consumer protection to stop scams. No pikt in calling them even if they do get through to a person. The call protection is redundant. The reason they don't get calls is because Indian call centers simply aren't calling. They stick to like 5 countries. Source: IT guy for call centers
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# BBC # News # Business France bans unsolicited telemarketing calls
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This law is entirely meant for retirees with landlines (the only constituency that matters anyway in our gerontocracy.)In a sense, it's good to have someone try to tackle an actual problem (I know it's a pain to have to pick up the phone several times a day because of telemarketer. Especially when you're retired and have nothing to do all day than…
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What kind of institution would give anyone access to any account purely based on a phone call though? That's the real insanity here.
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This is a great move by France, but most of the rest of the world does not suffer from the telemarketing scam hell that Americans do.I am a US citizen living overseas. I have a US cell number that is only used for 2FA for US financial institutions. No one else has that number. I get more scam calls every day on that number than I do in a year on…
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You would think that of all the "great achievements" our current administration likes to boast about, they would put some serious TEETH into SPAM and telemarketing calls - - like prison time, and rabid enforcement. Everyone I know does not answer any live calls unless it's someone on their known "list", everything else is texting only. I…
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Great idea!Telemarketers have ruined the phone network for me. I haven't answered an unknown call for the past 10 years, which sometimes means I miss important ones. 99.9% of all calls are an attempt to get money, and the 0.1% that's a dentist appointment, a friend that changed numbers or whatever become collateral damage.A ban is the right idea…
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My pet peeve is that a full class A attestation is still not a requirement in 2026. The US FCC won't do it. I have no hope from the current administration. However, perhaps France is in a unique position to implement this. The idea is that all calls that have a domestic caller ID will be required to have full class A attestation and all carriers…
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> On the other hand, France's new law has raised concerns in Morocco, where Employment Minister Younes Sekkouri, said in March that between 40,000 and 50,000 jobs were at risk in the country’s call centers. Sekkouri said the French market accounts for more than 80% of revenue in the sector.Never build a business around hassling other people. It's…