Abusive telephone solicitation, voice or SMS spam: what to do? - Abusive telephone solicitation

We're talking about abusive telephone solicitation when you receive unwanted commercial telephone calls.

For example, a company calls you to sell you a telephone subscription.

Register on Bloctel

If you do not wish to receive commercial telephone calls, you can register one or more of your fixed and/or mobile telephone numbers (up to 8 numbers) on an official list against abusive telephone solicitation Block :

Register on the Bloctel opposition list

This listing is free for all consumers.

Registration on Bloctel also allows you to report calls that you consider abusive.

This registration does not allow technically blocking abusive calls but professionals will no longer have the right to call you to canvass you, except in some cases.

If you change one or more phone numbers, you must unsubscribe the number(s) and register the new number(s) if you do not wish to be contacted.

Check that the call is abusive

There are 4 cases where the law allows certain professionals to call you despite your registration on Bloctel. These are calls from:

• survey or survey institutes
• non-profit organizations
• professionals for the sale of newspapers, periodicals or magazines
• companies with whom you have an ongoing contractual relationship. These companies can call you if you are a customer at home and only if the commercial offer is relevant to your contract. This includes offers of products or services that are related to your contract or that are complementary to the subject of your contract or that are likely to improve its performance or quality.

However, these professionals must respect certain days and times to call you. Indeed, since the 1^er march 2023, direct-dialing is permitted only Monday to Friday, 10.00 - 1.00 and 14.00 - 20.00. However, it is forbidden on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Furthermore, it is forbidden for the same professional or a person acting on his behalf to canvass you or try to canvass you by telephone more than 4 times during a period of 30 calendar days.

If you refuse to canvass on 1^er appeal, the trader or the person acting on his behalf has the obligation to no longer contact you for a period of at least 60 days from your refusal.

The trader or the person acting on his behalf shall be liable to an administrative fine of €75,000(if it is a natural person) or €375,000(if it is a legal person).

At the beginning of each phone call, the professional must also give you the following information:

• His identity or the identity of the person on whose behalf he is calling
• The commercial nature of his appeal

This information must be given to you in a clear, precise and comprehensible manner.

Without such information, the trader may be liable to a fine of up to €15,000.

The trader's phone number must also be displayed or face a fine of up to €375,000. So he can't reach you in a hidden number.

Since 1^er january 2023, direct-to-consumer platforms can no longer call you from numbers starting with 06 or 07 because they are associated in everyone's mind with mobile phones. They must use numbers starting with one of the following prefixes: 09 37, 09 38 or 09 39

You must report it on the Bloctel website by filling out a declaration form accessible from your personal area.

Your declaration is sent to the departmental services of the DGCCRF carry out such investigations as they deem necessary.

If you continue to receive abusive calls despite the steps you have taken to block and unsubscribe from them, you can consider filing a complaint with the DGCCRF or the Cnil.

You can do this by using Signal Conso:

Conso Signal: Report a Problem with a Merchant