French Telemarketing Restrictions Threaten Moroccan Call Center Industry

In France, a new decree on the regulation of the days, hours and frequency of telephone calls for unsolicited commercial prospecting came into force on March 1st. From now on, telephone canvassing of consumers is only allowed from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., but is prohibited on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. This regulation aims to protect the privacy of consumers but also to put an end to abusive telephone canvassing at any time.

In Morocco, these new measures will negatively impact the call center sector in Morocco, which currently employs more than 80,000 people. According to Youssef Chraibi, president of the Moroccan Federation of Outsourcing Services, and president of the Outsourcia group, this new regulation will have an impact of around 20% on teleprospecting activities, which represent about half of the outbound call segment, which in turn represents a minority share of the contact center sector in Morocco, reports SNRTnews.

The specialized telemarketing agencies, which represent more than 200 small players, will be the most affected by this new regulation. The impact will be less on generalist outsourcers addressing different markets and representing more than 70% of the sector’s activity, concentrated around a dozen players. Youssef Chraibi will specify that the total shortfall should represent about 3% of the export revenues of the entire contact center industry.