New laws on cold calling in 2023: what will change?

New rules on cold calling have come into effect since January 1, 2023. One of the biggest changes for call centres is the ban on commercial canvassing from a mobile number. In addition, the use of telephone numbers beginning with the prefixes 06 or 07 is prohibited. These numbers are now “exclusively reserved for the service of interpersonal communications”, announced Arcep, the French regulatory authority for electronic communications, posts and press distribution, in September 2022. The idea behind these restrictions is to better protect people against abuse and fraud. Thus, call centres have been assigned a list of telephone numbers reserved for cold calling.

According to the new national numbering plan produced by Arcep, these numbers must begin with:

• 0162, 0163, 0270, 0271, 0377, 0378, 0424, 0425, 0568, 0569, 0948, 0949 (Metropolitan France)
• 09475 (Guadeloupe, St-Martin and St-Barthélemy)
• 09476 (Guyana)
• 09477 (Martinique)
• 09478, 09479 (Reunion and Mayotte)

In the same way, even in the case of sending messages on behalf of a commercial outlet to its customers, whether it is to establish necessary contact (parcel delivery, announcing the arrival of a delivery driver, automated appointment reminder, etc.), call centres are obliged to use numbers starting with 0937 to 0939.

More changes to come?

By March 1, 2023, the rules will be strengthened again regarding cold calling by limiting it to specific days and times. As of this date, call centres will no longer be able to call or send unsolicited text messages on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. They will be allowed to make calls from Monday to Friday, but only from 10 am to 1 pm and from 2 pm to 8 pm. Outside of these hours and time slots, call centres are only allowed to solicit the prospect if they have obtained his prior consent. In addition to these restrictions, they are not allowed to contact a prospect for commercial prospecting more than 4 times a month.

In the event that the prospect explicitly refuses the canvassing during the conversation, call centres will only be able to renew a call after a period of sixty completed calendar days from the refusal.

It is important to note that any violation of these new laws is punishable by an administrative fine. The maximum amount can reach 75,000 euros for an individual and 375,000 euros for a legal entity.

ProContact’s director is optimistic about the changes

Faced with the new laws and those that will come in the following months, Bénédicte Bathurst, ProContact’s General Manager, is optimistic: “These new rules will not really change our way of working. In the best case, they will allow us to have better results”, she explains with enthusiasm. Indeed, regarding the days and new time slots for cold calling the director firmly states: “Even before these rules appeared, we were already working very ethically. We didn’t make calls on Saturdays and only worked during the week. Where there will be some adjustment for us is in the time between noon and two during which we usually work. Similarly, the fact that we will have to call a prospect no more than four times, or even twice if he asks for it, is completely understandable for us. In fact, even before this regulation, if a prospect asked us not to contact them again, we would automatically put them on the blacklist so that they would not be contacted again” she explains.

Moreover, the prohibition of calling with numbers with 06 and 07 prefixes is not a stumbling block for ProContact: “We used these numbers with very few customers and using numbers dedicated by Arcep henceforth is not a problem for us. We will also soon be allocated verified numbers. In other words, the operators will give us number ranges with which we can continue our activity. The people on the other end of the line who pick up the phone will know that it is a call centre. For us, these verified numbers are a real advantage. Before, our numbers were often blacklisted by the operators. But with these dedicated numbers, we will no longer have this problem and therefore, we will be much more reachable”, says Bénédicte Bathurst.

Nevertheless, the ever-increasing number of new rules concerning cold calling is pushing the director to gradually review her working methods: “We are aware that telephone prospection is going to become increasingly difficult. The future of our profession will be the creation of inbound leads. It will be about calling people who want to be called. To do this, we can, for example, approach prospects on websites where they can indicate whether they want to be contacted. This strategy allows us to have the consumer’s consent and thus, to be in accordance with the law”, she confides.

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At ProContact, we work closely with you to include this solution in your business strategy. We can offer you an unprecedented adaptation of your way of working thanks to the arrival of resources located elsewhere, without losing time, money or quality.

ProContact is more than a contact centre. Thanks to trained, qualified, hand-picked and multilingual agents, we enable the companies that choose us to gain credibility and above all to satisfy their customers, regardless of the situation and in complete transparency.

Outsourcing has become a tangible and concrete business strategy for the development of the company. To find out more about our services and for a quality partnership, click on our contact form, send us an e-mail or call us on (+33) 1 77 75 04 50.