French lawmakers move to stop annoying telemarketer calls
Under the legislation, passed in a senate vote, it will be up to a company to prove that a call made on their behalf to an individual's telephone was done so with the person's express consent.
The only exception would be when the company is calling to carry out an already-agreed contract.
According to an October 2024 survey by French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir, 97 percent of people in France have expressed irritation at the cold calls.
READ MORE:
France leads Europe with highest volume of spam phone calls
Often the telemarketers use different phone numbers from different geographic areas as a tactic to place the calls about heat pumps, changing utility or cell phone providers, installing windows, or other transactions.
The lawmakers, backed by the government, decided to erect a law against the cold-callers after seeing that a French service, Bloctel, meant to prevent such spam calls, was not working.
READ MORE:
REVEALED: The most common French telemarketing phone numbers
One Frenchwoman, Lucie Kapfer, 43, said she got rid of her landline after receiving "several calls each week" from unwanted telemarketers.
"But they continued on my mobile phone. Several calls a day -- it was sheer hell," she said.
Advertisement
The French government was also concerned by how many of the calls were about arranging fraudulent access to publicly funded schemes, such as training programmes or subsidies for making homes more energy efficient.
The law will protect "the more vulnerable people, the elderly, those who sometimes don't realise that this harassment by telephone is only an entry point to massive fraud schemes", said the minister for public accounts, Amelie de Montchalin.
The law is scheduled to come into effect in August 2026.
Companies "will have a year to organise themselves" to comply with the law, but after that "there will be no exceptions," said the senator Pierre-Jean Verzelen, who promoted the measure.
Spain, too, is looking at taking action against telemarketers. Its government last week said it wants telecom operators to block calls from firms not using a dedicated prefix identifying them as commercial callers.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
an hour ago
- LeMonde
Russia targeted French speakers in Africa with AI-generated posts, says France
A clandestine pro-Russian online operation targeted French speakers in Africa with "deceptive" AI-generated posts in a campaign likely directed by Moscow, a French government agency said, in a report on Thursday, June 12. Moscow has sought to expand its influence in Africa in recent years, including in former French colonies, through campaigns using grassroots activists and social media. France's Viginum agency, which counters foreign disinformation campaigns, linked Moscow's "clandestine digital activities" to a Russian news agency openly operating in Africa, called African Initiative. With a Moscow address, African Initiative publishes in five languages, including English and French, and runs journalism courses and press trips in Africa. Viginum said the news agency appeared to have set up an operation, which it called "deceptive," posting AI-generated images, text and video and using "malign techniques" to boost views. The operation using pseudo-media outlets was "likely" run by a web marketing company subcontracted by African Initiative, the report said. Dozens of automated accounts also disseminated links to the sites on blogs, with posts appearing to be AI-generated and sometimes translated from Russian, Viginum said. The websites ran several thousand articles, largely on non-political topics such as cinema, sport and music, in an apparent bid to get linked to by other media, the report said. Despite the complex structure, the operation did not rack up many views and the sites appear to have been inactive since December, the French agency said. Replacing Wagner's information operations The Wagner group had previously played a key role in such operations, but Moscow has apparently moved to centralise control of information operations since the group was disbanded and reorganised following the death of its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a 2023 plane crash. African Initiative has become "a key element in the restructuring and implementation of Russia's information and influence strategy in Africa" after Prigozhin's death, the Viginum report said. Its "activities are likely directed by the Russian state apparatus, particularly the Russian intelligence services," it said. Presented as an independent publication, its reporters include the former press secretary for Wagner's office in Saint Petersburg. Viginum released its findings after Meta in August 2024 said it had removed Facebook accounts targeting French-speaking African countries that promoted Russia's role in the region and criticized France. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, later said it had banned accounts based in Russia from using its language models to generate images, comments and articles in English and French, which have been posted on sites posing as news media in Africa.
Local France
2 hours ago
- Local France
French Senate rejects higher taxes on the rich
By suggesting the threshold, the bill's backers sought to put limits on any fiscal optimisation or avoidance strategies the wealthy employ to minimise their tax bill. The "Zucman tax" is named after French economist and director of the EU Tax Observatory Gabriel Zucman. The tax, he said, could raise around €20 billion per year by targeting 1,800 households. "This measure is extremely targeted at extremely rich people, and especially at those, among those extremely rich people, who pay very little tax today," he said. Advertisement However the bill, opposed by Prime Minister François Bayrou's government, was rejected by a large majority in the upper house, which is dominated by the centre-right. Only 129 senators voted in favour of the measure, with 188 voting against. The law had been sponsored by Green members of parliament and adopted by the lower house, the National Assembly, in February, thanks to left-of-centre support while the far-right Rassemblement National abstained. The proposed system would be "harmful to investors and to our financial resources," argued Finance Minister Eric Lombard in the Senate on Wednesday. In April, the government announced plans to save €40 billion for its 2026 budget. The tax proposal could be a "fiscal illusion" when it comes to the amount of savings Zucman expects, the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, told France Info on Thursday. According to centre-right Senator Emmanuel Capus, the tax is also "totally confiscatory and violates taxation equality". France currently has a 'wealth tax' which is charged on assets - not income - of €1.3 million or above. After five years of residence in France this includes all worldwide assets such as houses in the UK or US. READ ALSO : What is France's 'wealth tax' and who pays it?✎ France has struggled to tame its finances. In March, the INSEE statistics institute reported that France's public deficit reached 5.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year, which was slightly better than the six percent that had been forecast. Yet that remains well above the three-percent limit set for members of the eurozone. Bayrou's government is promising to get the deficit down to 5.4 percent this year, with the goal of getting back under three percent in 2029.
LeMonde
3 hours ago
- LeMonde
French senators reject tighter tax on ultra-rich
France's Sénat on Thursday rejected a draft law to make the ultra-rich pay at least a 2% tax on their fortune, as the government seeks to cut an alarming deficit. By suggesting the threshold, the bill's backers sought to put limits on any fiscal optimization or avoidance strategies the wealthy employ to minimize their tax bill. The "Zucman tax" is named after French economist and director of the EU Tax Observatory Gabriel Zucman. The tax, he said, could raise around €20 billion per year by targeting 1,800 households. "This measure is extremely targeted at extremely rich people, and especially at those, among those extremely rich people, who pay very little tax today," he said. However, the bill, opposed by Prime Minister François Bayrou's government, was rejected by a large majority in the upper house, which is dominated by the center-right. Only 129 senators voted in favor of the measure, with 188 voting against. The law had been sponsored by Green members of Parliament and adopted by the lower house, the Assemblée Nationale, in February, thanks to left-of-center support, while the far-right Rassemblement National abstained. The proposed system would be "harmful to investors and to our financial resources," argued Finance Minister Eric Lombard in the Sénat on Wednesday. In April, the government announced plans to save €40 billion for its 2026 budget. The tax proposal could be a "fiscal illusion" when it comes to the amount of savings Zucman expects, the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, told France Info on Thursday. According to center-right Senator Emmanuel Capus, the tax is also "totally confiscatory and violates taxation equality." France has struggled to tame its finances. In March, the INSEE statistics institute reported that France's public deficit reached 5.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) last year, which was slightly better than the 6% that had been forecast. Yet that remains well above the 3% limit set for members of the eurozone. Bayrou's government is promising to get the deficit down to 5.4% this year, with the goal of getting back under 3% in 2029.
