The renovation company ARCHE was recently fined €33,510 for non-compliance with telephone canvassing bans. Let’s look at this decision in more detail.
Considered fraud, cold calling from numbers on the Bloctel list is supposed to be punishable by heavy fines, up to €375,000. However, direct sellers continued to call en masse numbers that they were not allowed to contact, particularly for scams, especially during the Christmas period. Perhaps it is the end of an era, with the fines newly imposed by Bercy.
More than 1,000 calls banned in two months! The effectiveness of Bloctel questioned
The company, based in Aix-en-Provence, is condemned for having made a staggering number of canvassing calls to individuals whom it had no right to contact, as they had registered on the list Bloctel, made available by the French government.
1,017 calls in two months, that represents approximately 17 prohibited calls per day. If that doesn’t seem impressive, it’s still a significant number of unwanted phone calls to individuals who have officially expressed their desire to be left alone.
If you wish to register on the do not contact list, simply click on the link above, and create your account by providing an email address, your first and last name and the phone number to be protected .
Other companies have recently been singled out for the same reason, but in much greater proportions: 388,730 calls in three years for the company Vert Habitat, near Lyon, which represents more than 350 calls per day!
Could the rain of fines that are starting to fall be enough to dissuade companies from continuing their dishonest and illegal canvassing? The UFC-Que Choisir association does not seem convinced of the effectiveness of the system, which has nevertheless been in place for a number of years (established by a law of 2014).
The reasons seem to be a lack of awareness of the system, and a lack of willingness on the part of companies to follow their legal obligations. A possible explanation for this non-compliance on the part of companies is that when they want to check more than 100,000 numbers per year, they must pay a subscription to the Bloctel site, which goes up to €16,000 per year for one unlimited use. They probably prefer to risk the fine, knowing that fraud prevention checks are not that common.
The rules of cold calling are nevertheless simple
The website of the Ministry of the Economy indicates the rules for cold calling, to be followed in order not to fall into illegality, and they are clear.
Unless you fall into one of the exceptions, you are required to consult the Bloctel list every month and remove the numbers concerned from your calls list.
Exceptions are listed on the Bercy website:
- you represent a non-profit organization;
- you have a pre-existing contractual relationship with the client;
- you sell newspapers, periodicals or magazines.
If you are launching a new calling campaign, you are also required to purge your prospect files of banned numbers by consulting the up-to-date list.
In the event of non-compliance with these obligations, companies are exposed to significant sanctions, which could go up to €375,000 in fines.
Sources: tf1.info, economy.gouv, bloctel.gouv
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