France began enforcing a broad ban on unsolicited telemarketing calls on Aug. 11, requiring companies to secure a consumer’s consent before placing marketing calls. The measure stems from a law passed by the French Parliament on June 30, 2025.
Under the new rules, companies that make marketing calls without prior consent can be fined up to €375,000, or about NT$13.5 million. Individuals who illegally place such calls face fines of up to €75,000, or about NT$2.7 million.
France shifts from opt-out to opt-in
The report says the law, backed by President Emmanuel Macron’s government, marks one of France’s toughest recent consumer-protection moves.
Le Monde quoted Alice Vilcot, chief of staff at France’s Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, as saying: 「Companies may not contact consumers without their prior consent.」 She added that consent 「can be withdrawn at any time.」
That changes the basic logic of the system. Consumers previously had to take action to refuse telemarketing calls. Now companies must first obtain permission before making contact.
The law leaves two exceptions. Consumers can actively tick a consent box to receive marketing calls. Companies may also contact consumers about new commercial offers if a contractual relationship already exists between the two sides. In practice, cold-call prospecting is banned, while outreach to existing customers remains possible under those conditions.
Bloctel complaints helped drive the change
Under the previous framework, French consumers who wanted to avoid telemarketing had to register on the government’s Bloctel list. Consumer groups had long argued that many telemarketing firms ignored that list.
Vilcot said an Irish company was fined €6 million last year for calling numbers listed on Bloctel in violation of the previous rules.
Consumers who continue to receive illegal telemarketing calls under the new framework will be able to report them directly through a government website.
Official figures show the scale of the issue
According to official French statistics cited in the report, about three-quarters of the population receives at least one unsolicited telemarketing call each week, and many receive more than one.
In 2024, 11 consumer-protection groups issued a joint statement saying that fixed-line and mobile users were being repeatedly disturbed by unwanted marketing calls and that the intrusion had become part of daily life. The report describes that statement as a key piece of public pressure behind the legal change.
Morocco warns of a spillover effect on jobs
While the law has been broadly welcomed by consumers in France, it has stirred concern in Morocco, which the report says lies less than 2,000 kilometers away in straight-line distance.
Moroccan Employment Minister Younes Sekkouri warned publicly in March that the French rules could put 40,000 to 50,000 customer-service jobs at risk. The report says the French market accounts for more than 80% of revenue in Morocco’s telemarketing industry.
In that framing, every call no longer answered in France could mean one less work opportunity for a customer-service worker in Morocco.
Other countries use different models
The report says governments have not taken a uniform approach to telemarketing restrictions. Germany adopted a similar prior-consent model as early as 2009. The U.S., Canada, and the U.K. still rely on opt-out systems.
In the U.S., consumers can register on a national Do Not Call list. Canada has its own do-not-call registry. The U.K. uses the Telephone Preference Service. In the U.K., companies that call numbers already registered on the do-not-call list can face fines of up to £500,000, or about $670,000.
Taiwan’s current framework remains opt-out
The article also compares France’s move with Taiwan’s existing legal setup. It says Taiwan already has a basic statutory framework under Article 20, Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Personal Data Protection Act. Non-government entities that use personal data for marketing purposes must provide consumers, at the first marketing contact, with a free way to refuse further use. Once a consumer refuses, the business must immediately stop using that person’s data for marketing.
Still, that framework remains an opt-out model, broadly similar to France’s old regime. The report argues that France moved away from that approach because it did not prevent harassment effectively.
The penalty gap is wide
On penalties, the report says that if a business in Taiwan violates Article 20, regulators under Article 48 can first order a correction within a set period. Only if the business fails to comply can it be fined between NT$20,000 and NT$200,000, with repeated penalties possible.
Set against France’s maximum fine of €375,000 for a single call, the upper limit in Taiwan is described as less than 2% of the French level. The article also notes that Taiwan has no nationwide registry comparable to France’s Bloctel, the U.S. Do Not Call list, or the U.K.’s TPS, leaving consumers to block unwanted callers one by one.
The path discussed for Taiwan
The report says Taiwan already has the rough legal structure needed if it wants to move toward a French-style opt-in model. That would require lawmakers to raise the upper limit on fines under the Personal Data Protection Act, create a nationwide do-not-call registry, and reverse the logic of marketing calls from post-contact refusal to prior consent.
It also says any attempt to amend the rules would likely run into lobbying pressure because the financial sector has long depended on telemarketing channels. The article places that issue alongside Morocco’s exposure to the telemarketing business, presenting both as different versions of the same dependence on the model.