Since 11 August 2026, cold calling consumers in France without their prior consent is prohibited, and insurance, credit and real estate were the sectors doing most of it. The phone is not closed, though. Three lanes stay open: professionals (B2B), consented contacts and inbound callbacks, and existing clients. This guide covers the rules per sector and the scripts that work in each lane. It is not legal advice.

The 2026 reset: from opt-out to opt-in

For a decade, B2C phone prospecting in France ran on Bloctel, the opposition list: you could call anyone who had not registered. The law of 30 June 2025 against fraud reversed the logic. From 11 August 2026, a consumer can only be canvassed by phone if they gave prior, express consent, or if the call concerns an existing contract.

Two older rules still apply to the calls that remain allowed. The 2022 decree on calling hours: weekdays, 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 8pm, no weekends or public holidays, at most four attempts per 30 days per consumer, and a 60-day pause after a refusal. And the obligation to present a clean, identifiable number, with no spoofing.

Fines are significant and the DGCCRF publishes its decisions. Sector regulators (the ACPR for insurance and credit, the professional card regime for real estate) add their own sanctions.

Sector rules in one page

Insurance

Since April 2022, B2C insurance canvassing by phone requires the prospect's explicit agreement to continue the call at the start, bans signing on the first call, imposes a waiting period before any signature, and requires calls to be recorded and kept. With the 2026 opt-in, the consumer must now have consented before the dial as well. Professional insurance (a bakery's multirisk, a consultant's liability cover) is B2B and follows GDPR legitimate interest with an opt-out.

Credit and IOBSP brokers

Credit intermediaries are bound by banking and financial canvassing rules: identify yourself and your status, document the advice, keep a trace of exchanges. Consumer credit and mortgage leads now require consent before any outbound call; inbound comparator leads where the consumer asked to be called are not canvassing. Business loans and professional leasing are B2B.

Real estate

Agents operate under the 1970 Hoguet law (professional card, written mandate). Calling private sellers from classified ads was the industry's engine; without the seller's consent, it falls under the 2026 ban. Calls to developers, property managers, companies relocating staff, notaries and investors are B2B and remain open.

Lane 1: B2B prospecting, where the phone is wide open

Every one of these sectors has professional buyers. In our analysis of 1,000,000 B2B cold calls in France, the average connect rate is 11.3%, 15.8% at 4pm, 14% at 10am. Founders of SMEs pick up around 10am. That is your slot for the artisan who needs liability cover, the restaurant owner refinancing equipment, the developer with 40 units to sell.

The opener rule holds: 65% of reps pitch first and book 2-3%; trigger openers book 7-10%. Triggers in these sectors are public: a new company registration, a building permit, a commercial lease, a fleet expansion.

One caution. A sole trader can be a consumer in some contexts. If the product is personal (their own home, their own health cover), treat the call as B2C.

Lanes 2 and 3: consented contacts, inbound callbacks and existing clients

Consented contacts and inbound callbacks

This is the lane that replaces the old cold list. A form on your site, a comparator, a quote request, a referral who agreed to be called: all of these are consent, if the consent is specific, documented and recent.

Speed decides everything here. Call the lead within minutes, not days, and open with the request: "You asked for a quote on your car fleet at 2:14pm." Then the sector script applies: agreement to continue (insurance), identification and status (credit), the mandate conversation (real estate).

Keep the proof. The date, the source and the wording of the consent should sit on the contact record, because the first question an inspector asks is "show me".

Existing clients and dormant files

A client with a running contract can be called about that contract. A quote that expired six months ago is a known contact. In our data, a call to a known contact that opens with "How have you been?" succeeds around 10% of the time versus 1.5% for a standard cold open. Insurance and credit CRMs are full of these files, and most teams use about 20% of the signals already in their CRM.

Cross-selling (borrower insurance to a mortgage client, home cover to an auto client) lives here too, with the usual duty of advice.

Scripts that stay inside the lines

• Identification, always first. Name, firm, regulatory status in one sentence. It is the law in credit and insurance, and it builds trust everywhere.
• The reason. The consent, the contract or the B2B trigger, named explicitly. "You requested..." or "I saw your permit for...".
• Permission to continue. One question, then silence.
• Two "how" questions. Discovery questions starting with "how" lift conversion by 190%.
• A dated next step. Never a signature on the first call.

Before answering any objection ("I'm with my bank", "my agency has the mandate"), ask "What do you mean?". That reflex lifts conversion by 197% in our benchmark.

How Sonik approaches regulated-sector calling

Sonik is a B2B dialer, built for professional-to-professional outbound, and that is the lane where we add the most. Parallel dialing gives reps 5x more conversations on B2B lists, and CRM signals (dormant leads, closed-lost, job changes) feed lane 3 without buying a single cold file.

For consented B2C lists, our advice is procedural: load only lists that have passed your consent and Bloctel checks, keep the consent proof on the contact, and use the dialer's call logs as your audit trail. We are not a compliance vendor and we do not replace your counsel.

Conclusion

The B2C cold list is over in these sectors; the phone is not. Prospect professionals with triggers, call consented leads within minutes, and work the clients and dormant files you already have. This week, pull every quote that expired in the last 12 months and call those contacts at 10am with "How have you been?"