From Cold Calls to Cold Reality: North Africa’s Call Centers Confront French Regulatory Shift

By Mohamed Nizar

Casablanca, Morocco – A new wave of French legislation, spearheaded by the landmark “Loi Démarchage Téléphonique”, is set to fundamentally reshape the landscape of North African call centers, threatening thousands of jobs and forcing an industry built on serving the French market to undergo a rapid, profound transformation. Effective August 11, 2026, this shift from an opt-out to an opt-in system for telemarketing calls marks a seismic policy change, with significant repercussions for Morocco’s 120,000-strong call center workforce and Tunisia’s over 20,000 employees.

The looming crisis, while presented as a consumer protection measure by French authorities, is raising questions in North Africa about the enduring structural dependency of its former colonies.

The French Legislative Gauntlet: A New Era of Consumer Consent

The “Loi Démarchage Téléphonique”, definitively adopted by the French Parliament on May 21, 2025, through the Law Against All Aid Fraud, fundamentally transforms France’s approach to commercial telemarketing, according to information from Service-Public.fr. The core of the new framework is a general prohibition on telemarketing across all sectors, mandating prior, explicit consumer consent before any commercial calls can be made.

Youssef Chraibi, president of the Moroccan Federation of Service Outsourcing (FMES), highlighted the profound shift, telling Le360 that “whereas previously companies could contact consumers unless they had opted out through the Bloctel system, from August 2026 onward ‘only people who have given their explicit consent can be contacted.'” This consent, according to legal firm Fieldfisher, must be “free, specific, informed, unambiguous and revocable.”

Beyond the opt-in requirement, the legislation imposes stringent operational constraints. Calling hours are now limited to Monday through Friday, from 10 AM to 1 PM and 2 PM to 8 PM, Service-Public.fr reports. Furthermore, if a consumer refuses contact, companies are strictly prohibited from attempting to call them again for 60 calendar days.

The penalties for non-compliance are severe, designed to deter violations. Individuals face fines of €75,000, while legal entities can be fined up to €375,000. In cases involving the abuse of vulnerable persons, sanctions can escalate to €500,000 and five years imprisonment for individuals, or a staggering 20% of annual turnover for companies, as reported by Tuniscope.

French officials emphasize the protective intent of the law. Amélie de Montchalin, the Minister for Public Accounts, was quoted by the Times of India as emphasizing, “The law will protect the more vulnerable people, the elderly, those who sometimes don’t realize that this harassment by telephone is only an entry point to massive fraud schemes.” Senator Pierre-Jean Verzelen, a key proponent of the measure, declared to the Times of India that companies “will have a year to organize themselves” but after August 2026 “there will be no exceptions.”

Economic Fallout: North Africa’s Call Center Industry on the Brink

The impact of the French legislation on North African call centers is projected to be severe, threatening widespread unemployment and a fundamental restructuring of the region’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

Morocco’s call center industry, employing 120,000 people according to Maroc Diplomatique and generating annual revenues of 18 billion dirhams (€1.7 billion) as reported by Le360 and Bladi.net, faces an “existential threat.” The vulnerability stems from a critical dependency: 80% of Moroccan call center activities are oriented toward the French market.

While Youssef Chraibi of the FMES acknowledged to Le Matin that “telemarketing represents only 15-20% of total sector activity,” he cautioned that “the most vulnerable structures are small, undiversified entities, often single-client or single-activity telemarketing, which have not been able to reposition themselves as general outsourcers.” Chraibi estimated that approximately 10,000 jobs are directly threatened by this legislation.

The brunt of the impact will undoubtedly fall on smaller operators. As Chraibi explained to Bladi.net, “For them, this ban risks causing a sharp drop in their business volume, potentially leading to closure.” However, he added a nuanced perspective: “the sector, mainly dominated by large players accounting for more than 75% of the overall activity, has already begun a transition several years ago towards higher value-added services,”.

Tunisia’s call center sector, though smaller with 261 operational call centers as of January 2025, according to RentechDigital, and employing over 20,000 people across approximately 350 call centers, faces proportionally similar challenges. The industry generates approximately 300 million euros of annual turnover, equivalent to nearly one billion Tunisian dinars, RT France reports.

According to RT France, “200 Tunisian call centers and their 25,000 employees” face “an unprecedented challenge.” The “Chambre Syndicale Nationale des centres d’appels et de la relation client” (CSN CAREC), affiliated with UTICA, the main employers’ union, fears “waves of layoffs, particularly in telemarketing,” RT France indicates. Major players like Teleperformance are heavily implanted in Tunisia, notes RT France, while Tunis Call Center (TCC), founded in 1998, operates as “a multichannel contact center for customer service, sales, and marketing, operating primarily on French-speaking European, Italian and German markets,” according to Outsource Accelerator.

These projections come amidst a broader African BPO market that was valued at $2.85 billion in 2022, with an anticipated compound annual growth rate of 4.0% from 2023 to 2030, Africa Business Insider reported. However, these forecasts largely predated the French legislative changes and may necessitate significant downward revision. Research from African Business indicates that Africa’s BPO sector currently employs 1.2 million full-time equivalent posts across more than 400 contact centers and is projected to more than double by 2030, a growth that could be significantly impacted by the French legislation.

Forced Evolution: Adapting to a New Reality

North African call centers are not passively awaiting their fate. They are actively pursuing adaptation strategies to navigate the French legislative changes and ensure their survival.

The primary adaptation strategy involves pivoting from outbound telemarketing to higher value-added services. This includes a focus on customer service, technical support, back-office operations, and content moderation.

The CEO of Intelcia, a major player, reported to Bladi.net that the new legislation impacts them only “slightly, just at the margin.” The executive emphasized that “this new system impacts small call centers more than large ones,” implying that larger, diversified entities are better positioned to absorb the shock.

The sector faces a formidable dual challenge: regulatory upheaval from France and the inexorable advance of technological automation. A 2025 report by Caribou Digital and Genesis Analytics, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, delivers a stark warning that 40% of tasks in Africa’s BPO and ITES (IT-Enabled Services) sector could be automated by 2030, according to Mastercard Foundation. This automation risk is particularly acute for entry-level positions, which constitute 68% of the workforce in African BPO sectors, Unity Connect highlights.

However, technological integration is also viewed as an opportunity. Many operations are already implementing AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and proprietary chatbots, Infrastructure News reported, to enhance productivity and free up agents to tackle more complex problem-solving.

A crucial part of the adaptation strategy involves actively seeking to diversify beyond French-speaking markets to include Germany, the UK, Spain, and North America. Morocco’s multilingual talent pool provides a solid foundation for this expansion, though significant barriers remain in terms of market entry and competitive positioning.

The Outsourcia Group, with 4,300 employees proficient in over 10 languages across France, Morocco, Tunisia, and Madagascar, exemplifies successful diversification, as stated on their corporate website. Their establishment of OutsourciA LAB in 2024, a dedicated test and learn facility for generative AI, further demonstrates a forward-thinking approach to technological integration, according to Outsourcia.

Historical Ties and the “Golden Handcuffs” Effect

The intricate French-North African outsourcing relationship is deeply rooted in historical and linguistic connections forged during the colonial period. French colonization of Algeria (1830-1962), Tunisia (1881-1956), and Morocco (1912-1956) established French as the dominant language of administration, education, and commerce. This linguistic legacy created what scholars term “Françafrique”—France’s continued sphere of influence over former colonies through economic, political, and cultural networks. In the outsourcing context, North African call centers became a natural extension of French businesses, offering a cost-effective, culturally proximate, and linguistically fluent workforce.

However, this concentration on French markets, while providing steady revenue and growth, has created a “golden handcuffs” effect. It has fostered a lucrative but constraining dependency that has limited strategic flexibility and diversification. Smaller call centers, in particular, have suffered from “single-client dependency,” which prevented them from developing diverse capabilities needed for broader market engagement. Unlike larger operators that maintained multiple client relationships across different sectors, these smaller players became effectively captive to specific French companies or market segments.

Moroccan authorities have recognized the industry’s strategic importance, designating BPO as a priority sector under various development plans. However, policy responses have been largely reactive rather than proactive, focusing on infrastructure development rather than strategic market diversification.

Navigating the Transformation

The French “Loi Démarchage Téléphonique” is more than a regulatory hurdle; it is a fundamental disruption of established business models that have sustained North African call centers for decades. With 120,000 jobs at risk in Morocco, as reported by Maroc Diplomatique, and over 20,000 threatened in Tunisia, according to RT France, the industry faces an existential challenge demanding rapid and comprehensive adaptation.

The crisis starkly highlights the vulnerabilities inherent in over-dependence on single markets, while simultaneously showcasing the resilience of companies that proactively pursued diversification strategies. While smaller, specialized telemarketing operations face a grim future, larger, more diversified operators offering a broader spectrum of services may emerge stronger from this tumultuous transition.

As Youssef Chraibi of FMES notes, “We are in a sector that is developing 90% in exports in terms of revenue. We thus benefit from the global growth of outsourcing, which is around 8% per year. Neither Artificial Intelligence nor regulatory changes have weakened this momentum, even in times of crisis in Europe,” as he told Bladi.net.

The success of this transformation will hinge on coordinated efforts from industry players, governments, and international partners. The ultimate impact will depend on the industry’s ability to evolve from a low-value telemarketing focus to a high-value customer experience management paradigm, leveraging North Africa’s linguistic capabilities, cultural affinity, and cost advantages while proactively adapting to new market requirements and technological realities. The next 12 months, leading up to the August 11, 2026 implementation date, will be pivotal in determining whether this transformation yields success or if a significant portion of the region’s call center industry faces permanent decline.