The National Assembly, then the Senate, should quickly adopt a bill aimed at prohibiting calls, e-mails and SMS canvassing the personal training account (CPF).
It is rare for a bill to achieve consensus like the one tabled by MoDem and Independent MP Bruno Fuchs, who intends to fight against personal training account fraud and prohibit canvassing of its holders. A very short text (two to three articles, the elected officials will decide), which should be adopted in turn by the deputies and senators, for a hoped-for promulgation before the end of the year and entry into force at the very beginning of 2023. C is in any case the wish of its rapporteur.
The CPF, very lucrative for scammers and malicious organizations, must be better protected and supervised
The personal training account (CPF) is particularly lucrative for scammers. Each year, the latter is funded to the tune of 500 euros for employees at least half-time, and 800 euros for those who are the least qualified or who are disabled.
And inevitably, the fact that the French have direct access to their individual rights and to the training available via the “My Training Account” platform makes the system as much a success as a dream bait for malicious individuals, who engage in aggressive and abusive marketing to push people into paying for training against their will.
We are now well aware of the consequences of this success: telephone spam (calls, SMS) and e-mails from call centers and training organizations which do not hesitate to initiate fraudulent procedures, which are added to other frauds, even more serious, such as identity theft or misappropriation of CPF rights, the latter two being nevertheless more supervised by the Caisse des dépôts et consignations (CDC).
It is with a view to combating these excesses and maintaining a certain readability and credibility of the personal training account that the deputies Bruno Fuchs (Modem), Sylvain Maillard (Renaissance) and Thomas Mesnier (Horizons) presented a proposal for law, which should be a formality at the level of the National Assembly, before being discussed in the Senate, then promulgated at the end of the year if all goes well. What do we find in the text?
End of canvassing, sharing of information between state services and heavy penalties: a “small law”, but a real arsenal of fight
Section 1er aims to prohibit commercial prospecting of CPF holders, in any way whatsoever, which would aim to collect their personal data or to conclude contracts relating to training actions eligible for the system. To put it simply: it would put an end to cold calling at the CPF. Parliamentarians want to include the fight against CPF fraud directly in the consumer code, in the same way as the steps taken within the framework of the MaPrimeRénov’ system. The article would also fit into the Labor Code, “ when this canvassing does not take place within the framework of an ongoing service between an individual and a training organization “, we read in the text.
This article would empower the agents of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCF) to flush out and identify potential breaches. Any actor guilty of an abuse in canvassing and subscribing to training within the framework of the CPF would then be liable to be imposed an administrative fine.
This administrative fine could then reach a maximum amount of 75,000 euros, for a natural person, and 375,000 euros, for a legal person.
Article 2, on the other hand, provides a legal basis for the sharing of information between the competent authorities to intervene in the fight against CPF fraud. In other words, the article would allow the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, the France competence institution and the authorized State services (DGCCRF, DREETS, etc.) to collaborate to prevent and detect fraud, but also to carry out checks and pronouncing sanctions against individuals or organizations that engage in abuses.
And if originally the text included two articles, a third was added during its examination in committee. Introduced by amendment, this article 3, if adopted, would allow the establishment of an extensive referral procedure for training organizations on the “My Training Account” portal, referencing which would then go through the Caisse des dépôts et consignations , which would give the green light or not to the various organizations.
Sources: Law proposition, Report of the National Assembly
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