Telephone canvassing consists of a call not “explicitly” requested from a salesperson in order to sell a product or service to his interlocutor. Most of these calls relate to sales of windows, surveillance systems or insurance. Often disturbing or even scammers, canvassers only rarely give in, calling your telephones with different numbers, both mobile and landline.
Although laws exist, not all of them follow the regulations. According to the law of April 9, 2021, canvassing professionals must ensure that their interlocutor is in favor of continuing the conversation. Otherwise, according to UFC-Que Choisir, they will have to end the call without delay and will not be able to call back later. Many organizations do not respect this obligation.
According to Service-Public, telephone canvassers have a legal obligation to communicate certain information, clearly and precisely, to their interlocutor. First of all They must indicate, at the beginning of the conversation, their identity, that of their company and the commercial nature of their call.
Then, if the direct seller is an insurance broker, he must inform you about the essential characteristics of the insurance he is trying to sell you. He is also required to give you the price in euros including tax. Before concluding an insurance contract, the seller is required to specify the nature of his remuneration (fees or commissions). Finally, the insurance broker must provide you with the contact details of the complaints department as well as those of the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority.
Another obligation rests with the insurance seller. This makes it possible to differentiate scammers from honest professionals, to ensure the legitimacy of the contract signed but also to break it if there have been procedural defects. All insurance distributors have this obligation: the duty to advise.
According to article L.521-4 of the Insurance Code, insurance sellers, in particular intermediaries (therefore direct sellers), have the obligation to provide the subscriber with “objective information on the insurance product offered under an understandable, accurate and non-misleading form to enable him to make an informed decision”.
According to Groupama, the duty to advise is an essential legal obligation for the insurer. The seller must pay it before signing the contract so that the buyer can make the right decision. In concrete terms, the seller must determine whether the insurance sold is capable of satisfying the customer and must present to him the risks and advantages of his service.
The duty to advise applies to all insurance contracts: home insurance, car insurance, loan insurance, health insurance or even life insurance. This makes the lack of advice a lever of recourse to obtain reparation that can be mobilized in many cases of canvassing and abusive sales of insurance.
The Civil Code imposes an obligation of information, transparency, loyalty and good faith in the conclusion of contracts. Failure to comply with the duty to advise is a means of recourse to obtain compensation. A lack of insurance advice is a cause for cancellation of subscription.
The client may consider that he has not received all the information essential to his decision-making before signing and may claim the lack of advice. Then, the insured has the right to request the nullity of the contract.
If the insured decides to take the case to court, it may have repercussions for the insurer or the insurance intermediary, whose liability is then engaged. The aggrieved customer may thus claim damages, in compensation for the damage suffered. The contract is then not necessarily terminated, but the insured is compensated for the fault committed by the seller.
