As of January 1, 2022, registration for the free service to fight against direct sales by telephone Bloctel, until now valid for a period of three years, will be renewed by tacit agreement.
Good news for consumers whose phone numbers have fallen into unsavory hands and who are drowning all day in commercial solicitations and unsolicited canvassing! From 1er January 2022, any registration made on Bloctel, the free service to fight against telephone canvassing, will be renewed automatically – that is to say renewed by tacit agreement – every three years. The persons concerned will receive a message informing them of the procedure, but also of the possibility offered to them to terminate their registration to the service at any time. Until now (and for all registrations made up to the deadline of December 31, 2021), the telephone numbers (landlines and mobile) listed on Bloctel were for a maximum period of three years, at which time it was necessary to re-register for the service. A decree published on November 28, 2021 in the Official Journal modifies article R. 223-3 of the consumer code and regulates the new procedure.
Bloctel: the free service against telephone direct sellers
As a reminder, the Bloctel service has been set up in accordance with the Law n ° 2014-344 of March 17, 2014 relating to consumption, allowing any person to refuse to be approached by a professional with whom they have no current contractual relationship. Professionals are therefore prohibited from canvassing a consumer registered on the Bloctel list, but this principle suffers all the same. some exceptions listed by law. It is, for example, possible to be canvassed: by professionals for the supply of newspapers, periodicals or magazines, polling institutes or non-profit associations (as long as it is not a question of prospecting). A professional can also canvass a potential client if the person has communicated his telephone number in such a manner. “free, specific, informed and unambiguous to be remembered”.
Since its launch on 1er June 2016, the success of the Bloctel platform continued. And this, despite some technical hiccups Remarks. Thus, last October, the platform remained unavailable for several weeks. This failure was linked to a long-planned maintenance operation involving a change of service provider. The DGCCRF (Directorate-General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control) having entrusted Opposetel with the task of managing the Bloctel opposition list, in place of the former Worldline service provider.
Telephone canvassing: a practice under close surveillance
Today, despite Bloctel, many professionals continue to cross the red line when it comes to canvassing at the risk of being ordered to pay an administrative fine, the amount of which can easily reach several tens of thousands of euros. From a legislative point of view, the Naegelen law of July 24, 2020 has come to strengthen the system to fight against abusive telephone canvassing, in particular by prohibiting all canvassing for the sale of equipment or the carrying out of work for housing with a view to achieving energy savings or the production of energy renewable, and more generally for everything related to energy renovation.
The DGCCRF closely monitors abuses in this area and does not hesitate to sanction (sometimes very heavily) offenders. On October 18, 2021, the departmental director of population protection of Ille-et-Vilaine imposed two fines (one for 460,000 euros, the other for 65,000 euros) to two companies present in this sector. It should be noted that during a telephone canvassing, the law provides that the caller must present himself in a clear, precise and understandable manner on the telephone and must also remind the consumer of his right to register on Bloctel, if he does not want to be the subject of commercial prospecting.
In 2020, the DGCCRF inspected more than 1,500 establishments for compliance with the provisions governing telephone canvassing. These checks led the DGCCRF to penalize 108 direct sellers for non-compliance with the system of opposing telephone canvassing, by imposing a total fine of 4.3 million euros. This amount has doubled compared to 2019 and should increase further in 2021, specifies the DGCCRF which also indicates that in this type of case it proceeds to the systematic publication of administrative police measures taken against companies. in breaches, on its website and on its social networks. Finally, since registration for the Bloctel service only concerns canvassing by phone call, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance reminds that in the event of receipt of fraudulent SMS, the consumer can forward it to the 33,700, consult the site SignalSpam, or report the surcharged number on the site Surmafacture.fr, the reverse directory of premium rate numbers.