New cold-calling laws in France: what if I have a foreign number?
France implemented one of Europe's strictest anti-cold-calling regulations on August 11, 2026, under Law n° 2025-594 of 30 June 2025 on 'Combating All Forms of Fraud Involving Public Aid'. The legislation shifts France from an opt-out system to a mandatory opt-in framework, requiring companies to obtain explicit prior consent before making commercial calls to consumers in France.
The new rules apply to all consumers based in France, not just holders of French phone numbers. This means residents with UK mobiles using eSIMs or other international numbers fall under the same protections as those with French landlines or mobiles.
How the law works
Companies can only contact consumers under two conditions: when a person has opted in to receive calls, or when there is an existing contractual relationship with the company. There is no database of prohibited numbers as there was under the now-redundant Bloctel service.
Regardless of which number you use, companies need your prior consent to call. The consent must meet GDPR standards, meaning it must be freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous, and revocable at any time. Companies must maintain evidence that consent was obtained.
Even with consent, companies can call the same consumer a maximum of four times per month. The law does not specifically exempt non-French numbers, meaning the same rules theoretically apply to international mobile and landline numbers.
Foreign numbers in practice
In practice, those with non-French mobile numbers face even lower risks of unwanted commercial calls than French number holders. Not all companies accept non-French numbers when customers sign up for services, limiting which groups can legally contact you under the 'existing customers' rule.
Company systems may prevent calls to international numbers even when consent has been given, or calls may fail to connect if you are located abroad when the attempt is made. This makes it highly unlikely that companies will have permission to call non-French landlines in particular.
However, if you have provided a non-French number at any point of sale or when logging into a website, there remains a possibility you could be contacted by companies with whom you have an existing relationship.
Why the law was needed
The legislation came in response to a growing epidemic of unwanted calls. France received the highest volume of unwanted calls in Europe in 2025, with residents receiving an average of 18 unwanted calls per month, up from 12 per month the previous year, according to security company Hiya.
Complaints to French telecoms regulator Arcep about scam and fraudulent calls surged by 113% in 2025, reaching 23,383 complaints, making it the second-most common reason for complaints after fibre optic internet issues.
The previous Bloctel do-not-call register, launched on 1 June 2016, had faced criticism for being ineffective. Nearly half of registered users reported no reduction in unwanted calls a year after its launch, prompting calls for stronger legislation.
Enforcement and penalties
Companies violating the new law face substantial penalties: fines of up to €75,000 per call for individuals and €375,000 per call for companies. In serious cases involving vulnerable people, criminal penalties can reach up to five years' imprisonment and fines of up to €500,000.
Even stricter rules apply to specific sectors. A total ban on marketing by phone, SMS, email or social media already applies to the energy-efficiency renovation sector and adaptations for elderly or disabled people, aimed at curbing abuse of state schemes such as MaPrimeRénov' and MaPrimeAdapt'.
Scam calls remain a risk
The law's limitations in preventing scam calls apply equally to French and non-French numbers. Despite the risk of sanctions, some scammers will simply ignore the new rules and continue calling any numbers they can access, though they may be less inclined to target non-French numbers than those located in France.
It is harder for French authorities to prevent and sanction calls from international numbers, with many scammers already using international numbers to screen calls or calling directly from abroad. This means vigilance remains necessary regardless of which number you use.
Additional privacy protections came into force in January 2026, when French landline numbers ceased being listed in publicly available directories unless the subscriber explicitly agreed, aligning their status with mobile numbers which already enjoyed greater protection.
