France cold calling rules since 11 Aug 2026: B2C vs B2B

France’s cold calling rules changed on 11 Aug 2026: a sales call to a consumer now needs that person’s prior consent, unless it concerns a contract they already have. Calls to professionals were not switched to consent. B2B teams can still call on legitimate interest when the offer fits the person’s job and the person can object easily.

That split matters more than the headline. Most of what was written in August was about consumers. If you sell software to IT managers in Lyon, your list is still callable. If you sell solar panels to homeowners, it is not, and it was not callable for that product before either.

What changed on 11 Aug 2026

The change comes from the law of 30 Jun 2025, which rewrote article L. 223-1 of the French Consumer Code. The CNIL’s guidance on phone prospecting, updated for the new rule, summarizes it: consumers can’t be canvassed by phone unless they gave prior consent or the call concerns a contract in progress.

Before, France worked the other way round. You could call consumers unless they had opted out. Now the default is “no” for consumers, and the business has to prove a “yes”.

As of October 2026, the CNIL and the DGCCRF (the consumer protection authority) say a joint FAQ is still coming, so expect details to be clarified.

B2C vs B2B: the decision table

Who you call	Legal basis	What you must do	Calling hours in the CNIL guidance
Consumer, no relationship	Prior consent	Collect consent with a positive action (an unticked box), keep proof for 3+ years, renew within 1 year	Mon–Fri, 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–20:00 French time
Consumer with a contract in progress	Exception: no consent needed	Keep the call about that contract: its execution, add-ons or upgrades to it	Same windows
Consumer who asked to be called	Exception under strict conditions	Call within 5 working days, only about what they asked for	Same windows
Professional, offer relates to their job	Legitimate interest	Inform them their number may be used for prospecting; let them object simply and free of charge	Not set in the CNIL’s B2B guidance
Professional, offer unrelated to their job	Weak case for legitimate interest	Treat as consumer-style outreach or don’t call
Any contact, energy renovation, home adaptation or CPF	Banned	Don’t call

The CNIL’s example of a fair B2B call is one that presents the merits of software to a company’s IT director. Calling that same IT director at their desk about a home loan is a different matter.

What valid consumer consent looks like

According to the CNIL, consent must be free, specific, informed and unambiguous, and it needs a positive act, such as a dedicated box that is not pre-ticked. Accepting general terms and conditions is not enough. The person can withdraw it at any time.

The consent request must include, per the decree of 23 Jul 2026 cited by the CNIL:

1. the identity of the caller;
2. the type of goods or services the consent covers;
3. a validity limited to 1 year;
4. the right to withdraw at any time;
5. the right to see the proof of consent on request.

Keep the proof for at least 3 years from collection, on a durable medium the consumer can access for free. In practice, that means storing the form text, the timestamp, the source page and the number together, not just a “consented: yes” flag in the CRM.

A B2B checklist for French lists

For teams calling French businesses, the CNIL’s B2B rules come down to information and an easy way out. Before the next campaign:

1. Check relevance. Tag each contact’s job title. Drop anyone whose role has nothing to do with what you sell.
2. Check the source. For bought or enriched lists, the CNIL says you must make sure the person was informed their number could be used for prospecting and can object. Ask the data vendor how they informed people, in writing.
3. Say who you are. Every call must let the person know which organization is calling.
4. Make objecting easy. Every call must give a simple way to refuse future calls. A “please don’t call again” goes on your do-not-call list that day, across every campaign.
5. Separate consumer numbers. Sole traders and personal mobiles blur the line. If a number looks personal and the offer could be consumer, treat it as B2C.
6. Keep automated calls apart. Prerecorded or automated calls (an “automate d’appel”) follow the CNIL’s electronic marketing rules: prior consent for consumers, information and opt-out for professionals.

For how France fits with Germany and the UK, see B2B cold calling under GDPR.

Worked example: calling France from Bengaluru or New York

The CNIL’s time windows are written for consumer calls. Many B2B teams use them as a sensible default for France anyway. Here is what they look like once France is on winter time (CET, UTC+1, from 25 Oct 2026) and New York is on EST (from 1 Nov 2026). This is an example; check daylight saving dates for your own offices.

Paris time	UTC	India (IST)	New York (EST)	Singapore
10:00–13:00	09:00–12:00	14:30–17:30	04:00–07:00	17:00–20:00
14:00–20:00	13:00–19:00	18:30–00:30	08:00–14:00	21:00–03:00

A team in Bengaluru gets a clean afternoon block from 14:30 to 17:30, then an evening shift. A New York team only gets the afternoon window, from 08:00 to 14:00 their time. If you stretch these windows by hand across offices, someone will dial at 09:30 Paris time. Let the dialer read the contact’s time zone instead. More on that in calling prospects in different time zones.

How DialSavvy handles this

DialSavvy checks every call before it rings: calling hours in the contact’s time zone and your do-not-call list. A rep’s “Do not call” outcome blocks that number for every campaign. Rules come from versioned rule packs by country. In EU countries, France included, parallel dialing stays off at launch, and single and power dialing run where the country pack allows it. National DNC registry checks are coming. See DialSavvy compliance and the country coverage page.

Consent records and the legal basis for each list stay your call, and your counsel’s. If you are about to open France, book a demo and bring a sample of your French list: we’ll show you how the checks treat each contact before anyone dials.