Despite the bans, 43,000 reports for telephone canvassing recorded since August

Despite the ban on non-consented telephone canvassing since August 11, 43,000 reports were filed from the beginning of August to the end of September on government platforms, the Fraud Repression Agency (DGCCRF) said on Tuesday. These reports include cases of cold calling in the energy renovation sector, which has been banned since 2020. Since August 11, the regulations provide that any commercial call, regardless of the subject concerned, must be preceded by explicit, prior and traceable consent of which the professional must provide proof.

These reports were made both on SignalConso and on the Bloctel platform, a list of opposition to telephone canvassing deactivated when the law came into force, ten years after its launch. In the first months of 2026 preceding the start of the ban on non-consented canvassing, “more than 150,000 reports” had been submitted on these platforms, according to the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF), which thus confirmed information from the daily Ouest-France.

“It is at this stage too early to draw conclusions from these figures on the number of calls received by consumers because monitoring the number of reports received on Bloctel and SignalConso in recent years does not allow us to note a marked increase in the number of reports,” nevertheless indicated the DGCCRF. The administration, which notified in 2025 more than 11 million euros in fines to establishments transgressing the law on cold calling, listed 287,000 reports over the same year. In 2024, 266,000 reports had been filed.

The executive was counting on this ban to strengthen the fight against fraud, with canvassing regularly leading to fraudulent proposals. In a survey by the consumer association Que Choisir Ensemble (formerly UFC) published in February, 97% of French people said they were “annoyed” by telephone canvassing.