You publish your listing on a Tuesday morning. By midday you have taken six calls — and not one is from a buyer. They are estate agencies offering you a mandate. The practice has a name in the French trade, la pige, and it was long the profession's primary source of sale mandates. Since 11 August 2026 it has been unlawful.
The change runs deeper than commercial etiquette. The logic has been inverted: you no longer register somewhere to refuse calls, a company must have obtained your explicit agreement to make them. And the penalty does not stop at a fine: a contract signed as a result of an unlawful call is void — sale mandates included. For a seller, that changes how you deal with agencies that approach you. For an investor who sells regularly, it changes how you choose your intermediary.
The contract is void — Article L. 223-1 of the French Consumer Code provides that any contract concluded as a result of cold calling carried out in breach of its provisions is void. The fine can reach €375,000 for a company (Art. L. 242-16).
What this article covers
What the law of 30 June 2025 actually changed on 11 August 2026, why la pige became unlawful, the six statements consent must carry to be valid, the exact scope — and the limits — of a void mandate, what an agency may still do, and how to take back control of your property valuation without handing over your phone number.
What changed on 11 August 2026
The founding text is not "the law of 11 August", contrary to what is often written: it is Law no. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025, whose Article 13 rewrote Article L. 223-1 of the Consumer Code, with deferred entry into force on 11 August 2026.
The wording leaves no room for doubt: "It is prohibited to cold-call, directly or through a third party acting on its behalf, a consumer who has not previously expressed consent to receiving commercial marketing by that means." Consent is defined there as a freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous and revocable expression of will, given "by a clear affirmative act".
Two practical consequences follow. First, the burden of proof falls on the company. It is not for you to show you agreed to nothing; it is for the agency to show that you agreed. Second, Articles L. 223-3 and L. 223-4, which governed the Bloctel opt-out list, have been repealed. The register no longer exists, and the argument "your number was not on Bloctel" carries no weight.
A presumption of liability that travels up the chain
Article L. 223-1 contains a frequently overlooked paragraph: "Any professional having derived profit from commercial approaches to consumers made by telephone in breach of the provisions of this article is presumed liable for that breach, unless it demonstrates that it is not the origin of the breach."
In other words: an agency that buys contacts from a supplier cannot hide behind that supplier. It profited from the call, so it is presumed liable. This point explains why the market for French prospect databases collapsed in value this summer.
For a seller, the practical reading is simple. The agency calling you is the party carrying the legal risk, not the data vendor whose name you will never hear. That is worth knowing before the conversation turns to a mandate, because it changes who has an interest in the paperwork being sound.
Why la pige became unlawful
La pige consists of monitoring private-seller listings, extracting the phone numbers, then calling to offer a mandate. Two things now make it unlawful.
First, publishing a listing is not consent. A listing is addressed to potential buyers; it is not a clear affirmative act by which you would accept marketing approaches from professionals. Consent must also be specific to the telephone channel and informed, which a number visible online plainly cannot satisfy.
Second, consent is personal. It must be traceable to the company actually making the approach. Consent given to a valuation platform does not transfer to the agency that buys the contact; consent given to one agency is not shared with other agencies in the same network. That is what strips value from bulk lead purchasing.
Key takeaway: the question is no longer "is my number protected?" but "did I give my agreement, to this specific agency, less than a year ago?". If the answer is no, the call is unlawful.
What valid consent must contain
Decree no. 2026-662 of 23 July 2026, published in the Official Journal on 25 July, created Articles R. 223-1 to R. 223-4. It lists what must be displayed before you accept — the checklist to apply to the next online valuation form you fill in.
| Required statement | Acceptable wording | Invalid wording |
|---|---|---|
| Identity of the company | "Agence Dupont Immobilier, RCS Tours 123 456 789" | "our partners", "a professional in your area" |
| Goods or services concerned | "about the sale of your property" | "for commercial purposes" |
| Explicit phone opt-in | A dedicated, unticked phone box | A single box, "I agree to be contacted" |
| Period of validity | "valid for 12 months" | No mention, or "until revoked" |
| Right of withdrawal and how | A withdrawal link or address shown | A cross-reference to the terms of use |
| Access to the proof | "you may obtain a copy of your consent" | Absent |
Expressly ruled out: the pre-ticked box, the pre-filled document without an affirmative act, merely continuing to browse, and blanket consent covering "all channels" or "all our partners".
The company must keep these records for three years and give you a free copy on a durable medium. Do not confuse the two periods: three years of record-keeping, but a maximum of one year of permission to call, running from collection and with no automatic renewal.
Hours, frequency, withdrawal
Even with valid consent, Article D. 223-9 frames the calls: Monday to Friday, 10am-1pm and 2pm-8pm, excluding public holidays, and a maximum of four approaches in any 30 calendar days, across all numbers, attempts and voicemails included. Withdrawal must be possible at any time and by a means "no more complex than that used to obtain it" — a refusal stated verbally during the call is valid, and requires the caller to end it without delay.
A void mandate: what the text says, and what it does not say yet
This is the provision the French property trade talks about most, and it deserves to be read closely. The text provides that any contract concluded with a consumer as a result of cold calling carried out in breach of the article is void. A sale mandate is a contract, so it falls within scope.
Three caveats apply, however, and it would be dishonest to leave them out.
- Voidness presupposes a causal link — the contract must have been concluded "as a result of" the unlawful call. Where the mandate is signed several weeks later, at the end of a meeting, that link will have to be established.
- The text specifies neither the nature of the nullity (relative or absolute), nor who may invoke it, nor the applicable limitation period.
- The fate of commission already collected is not settled by the text.
As at the date this article was published, no court decision has been handed down on a text that entered into force less than three weeks ago. Voidness is therefore not automatic: it is a serious legal risk for the professional, and a serious line of defence for the consumer — subject to how the courts read it.
What to do now: if an agency calls you without your having approached them, note the date and time, ask for the exact registered company name and the date of your supposed consent, then demand a copy of it — that is a free entitlement. Sign nothing during the call. You can report the approach on SignalConso, the DGCCRF's reporting service.
What remains perfectly lawful
The law does not stop agencies from prospecting: it closes one channel towards one audience. Still open:
- A running contract. If you have signed a mandate, the agency may call you about it — the text permits contact "in the course of performing a running contract" where it "relates to the object of that contract". Three cumulative conditions: a live contract, with the entity calling, on its subject matter.
- Postal mail, leafleting, door-knocking and field prospecting, which fall outside this regime.
- Inbound contact: if you call an agency or knowingly complete its form, the relationship starts on your initiative.
- Business-to-business prospecting. Article L. 223-1 covers only the "consumer". A supplier may therefore still call an agency — but beware the false friend: a private seller, an individual landlord or a co-owner in an undivided estate are consumers, even where their number appears in a listing.
Taking back control: value your property before you are called
The corollary of this reform is simple: information comes to you less, so you have to go and find it. A seller who knows their property's value, costs and tax exposure before the first meeting negotiates from a better position than one discovering those figures over the phone.
Value your property before contacting an agency
The Mon Simulateur Immobilier valuation tool cross-references actual transactions recorded in the DGFiP's DVF database around your address, the building's characteristics and your property's energy rating to produce a value range and a confidence score. It returns a result immediately, without requiring your phone number.
Three further figures are worth knowing before listing. Your property's green value — the discount or premium tied to its energy rating, which weighs heavily on the negotiated price today. The acquisition costs your buyer will bear, which shape their real budget. And your taxable capital gain, whose calculation depends on how long you have owned the property and which works you can evidence.
Three questions to ask an agency that cold-calls you
If an agency calls you unprompted, three questions are enough to establish where you stand. Where and when did I give my consent? The professional must be able to name the source and the date; if they mention a purchased database or your listing, no consent exists. Can you send me the proof? It is an entitlement, it is free, and a refusal is itself a signal. What exact wording did I accept? It must carry the six statements required by the decree, including the name of the calling agency.
These questions are not an act of suspicion: they separate an agency that has built a compliant process from one that is working a purchased list. It is an indicator of professional seriousness, in the same way as a valid carte professionnelle or professional indemnity insurance.
One point worth noting for landlords: if your property falls under the French rental ban timetable — properties rated G since 1 January 2025, F in 2028 and E in 2034 — you will have noticed that approaches on that subject have dried up. That is expected: they fall under an even stricter regime, energy renovation, where the ban extends to email and SMS since July 2025. Our article on the conditions for re-letting an energy-inefficient property sets out that timetable.
In short: cold calling has not disappeared, it has reversed direction. It is no longer for the professional to find you, it is for you to choose them — and you will choose better if you know your property's value before the first meeting. That is exactly what the Mon Simulateur Immobilier valuation tool gives you, in a few minutes and without leaving a number.
