French daredevil crosses Channel
Former jet-ski champion Franky Zapata has successfully crossed the Channel on his jetpowered hoverboard
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November 2016 - Issue #85
Dordogne
Your local newspaper for life in France
September 2019 - Issue 75 - FREE!
Fresh crackdown on cold callers
Cannabis sausages in 'high' demand - pg 9
T
Provence sends rosé to Trump - pg 11
The Bugle Business Directory - pg 14-18 © Tom Thersleff (Flickr)
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Fine warning issued for lane hoggers - pg 7
French couple face jail for Sardinian sand theft - page 7
After the failure of the original Bloctel system, the French telecoms watchdog Arcep has unveiled a series of new rules aimed at tackling unsolicited marketing calls.
he country’s telephone police, Arcep (L’autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes) have introduced a series of new measures aimed at bringing to an end the modern day menace that is cold calling. Anyone with a French mobile or landline will be more than familiar with receiving a call, apparently from within France, or even sometimes locally, only to find out that you are being targeted by a cold calling centre based abroad. For some, the number of such calls regularly reaches into the dozens every day. There was hope when the Bloctel system was first introduced in 2016. The scheme allowed people to register their number and opt out of marketing calls, with the threat of heavy fines for companies that broke the rules. In reality, the cold callers just got smarter and the system has thus far had a limited impact. Many companies simply transferred operations abroad, playing the system and making French law much harder to enforce. Despite millions signing up to the Bloctel opt-out scheme, it was quickly branded a failure, with as many as 90% of people claiming they were unhappy and relatively few fines handed out. Consumer affairs group UFC Que choisir conducted its own investigation after the system was introduced and concluded that the service was not living up to expectations. “We have noted that many people have complained, even after registering with Bloctel,” said a representative. “Some have even reported receiving more nuisance calls after registering. Furthermore,
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