Yes. B2B cold calling is legal in France in 2026. The law passed on 30 June 2025, and the opt-in rule that applies from 11 August 2026, concern consumers. Calling a professional at their workplace about something related to their job remains allowed under GDPR's legitimate interest, provided you respect a handful of rules on hours, numbers, information and opt-out. Here is what applies to a B2B team, what applies only to B2C, and where the two overlap.

The 2026 rules in one paragraph

Law no. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025 moves consumer cold calling from opt-out (Bloctel) to opt-in: from 11 August 2026, you may only cold call a consumer who has given prior, explicit consent, with a narrow exception for existing contractual relationships. Administrative fines stay at up to 75,000 euros for an individual and 375,000 euros for a company. None of this rewrites the B2B regime, which has always rested on a different legal basis.

This is not legal advice. It is what we apply at Sonik and what we see French sales teams apply. Check specifics with your counsel.

B2B vs B2C: two regimes, one phone

B2C is governed by the Consumer Code: Bloctel until August 2026, opt-in after, calling hours, attempt caps, and banned sectors (energy renovation since 2020, CPF training since 2022, among others).

B2B is governed by GDPR and the CNIL's guidance on professional prospecting. You can call a person at a company without their consent if three conditions hold: the call relates to their professional function, they were informed (at collection or at first contact) that their data is used for prospecting, and they can object easily and for free. The legal basis is legitimate interest (article 6.1.f).

The grey zone is the person, not the company. A sole trader on a 06 number, a freelancer, a company director reached on a personal mobile: these can be consumers in the eyes of the law. In our experience the safe rule is that if the number was published for professional purposes and the call is about the business, you are in B2B; if you are not sure, treat it as B2C.

The rules that apply even in B2B

Calling hours and frequency

The decree of 13 October 2022 sets consumer cold calling hours at Monday to Friday, 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 8pm, with a cap of 4 attempts per 30 days and a 60-day pause after a refusal. Strictly, it binds B2C. In practice we recommend every B2B team adopt it as a floor, for two reasons: the grey zone above, and the fact that our benchmark of 1,000,000 B2B cold calls in France shows the best connect rates at 10am (14%) and 4pm (15.8%) anyway. Nothing you lose at 8am (9.8%) was worth the exposure.

The number you call from

Since 2023 the French numbering plan forbids using 06/07 mobile numbers as the caller ID for prospecting calls; you need geographic (01 to 05) or verified polyvalent numbers. French operators have also been rolling out caller number authentication, so check with your carrier how calls that fail it are treated. A spoofed "local presence" number is now both illegal and useless. Your dialer must own and authenticate the numbers it gives you.

Calling mobiles

Calling a professional on their mobile is legal in B2B. What matters is the basis and the information: the number must come from a documented source (the person's own publication, a provider that informs the people it lists, your CRM), and the first call must say who you are and let the person object. Calling a mobile from a mobile is the thing that is not allowed.

Information and opt-out

Say your name and your company at the start. Keep a suppression list and honour an objection on the spot, for every number the person gives you, across every rep and every campaign. A suppression list that every tool respects is one of the first things an inspector is likely to ask about.

Recording

Recording calls for coaching is allowed if the prospect is informed, the purpose is defined, access is restricted and retention is limited (the CNIL's benchmark is 6 months for coaching recordings). Transcripts and AI analysis are processing of personal data; document them.

What changes for B2B teams in 2026, practically

• Clean your lists of consumers. Any personal mobile or sole-trader number without a professional basis should be scrubbed against Bloctel now and dropped after 11 August 2026 unless you hold consent.
• Document the source of every number. Provider, date, legal basis. Enrichment providers must be able to show they inform the people they list.
• Enforce hours in the tool, not in the training deck. A dialer that cannot block calls outside the window makes the rep the compliance officer.
• Audit your caller IDs. No 06/07, all authenticated, reputation monitored.
• Treat opt-out as a product feature. One click in the dialer, synced to the CRM, applied across all campaigns.

Why the 2026 rules help B2B callers

Less consumer spam means fewer people conditioned to hang up on an unknown number. French operators authenticating caller IDs means a clean, owned number gets through. And the teams that document their basis and respect the hours can say so to prospects, which, in a market that has been told cold calling is banned, is an opener in itself.

How Sonik approaches cold calling compliance in France

Sonik is a French parallel dialer, so the French rules are built in rather than configured. Calling windows are enforced per campaign, numbers are geographic or polyvalent, owned and authenticated, and caller ID reputation is monitored. Do-not-call and objection lists are applied at dial time across all reps and campaigns, and synced with the CRM.

Recording and AI coaching run with the prospect informed, data hosted in the EU and retention limits set per account. The signals layer also helps on the legal side: a call triggered by a job post or a website visit is a call with a documented reason, which is what legitimate interest asks for.

Conclusion

B2B cold calling stays legal in France in 2026; what changes is the price of sloppiness. Call professionals about their job, from an authenticated geographic number, inside the hours, with a suppression list that works. This week, pull your calling list and count the 06/07 numbers with no documented professional source; that count is your August 2026 risk.