Small call centers are beginning to feel the pinch from France’s ban on unsolicited commercial calls, with some businesses in Casablanca closing premises or dropping their leases and nearly 50 jobs lost at one Technopark center.
The ban came into force on August 11, requiring consumers in France to give prior consent before receiving commercial prospecting calls.
Twenty-four days later, the full impact on call centers remains difficult to pin down. The measure took effect in the middle of August, when much of the industry was on annual leave.
Ayoub Saoud, secretary-general of the National Federation of Call Centers and Offshoring Professions, said the first signs were already visible in Casablanca.
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“Knowing the sector well, especially here in Casablanca, I have already noticed that some businesses have removed their signs,” he said. “That is a real signal, as is the fact that others have not renewed their leases.”
Saoud expects a clearer picture as businesses return after the summer break.
“It is therefore still too early to draw conclusions, but the first effects should become visible at the start of this new season,” he said.
Counting the jobs at risk will not be easy either.
Saoud said part of the telemarketing business operates informally, with some small companies failing to declare their employees.
That can leave workers particularly exposed when a center closes, as they may be unable to claim unemployment benefits from the CNSS.
The federation has already been alerted to one case at Casablanca’s Technopark, where Saoud said nearly 50 people had lost their jobs.
Meetings with the labor inspectorate went nowhere after the company’s legal representative failed to attend, he said.
The sector’s union has since taken the collective labor dispute to the prefecture through the provincial inquiry and conciliation commission and is waiting to be summoned.
Saoud pointed to another Casablanca case as a warning.
Paul & José shut down overnight in May 2025, leaving around 60 employees without work. The workers later won their cases in court, but the rulings have still not been enforced, he said.
“If the supervisory authorities do not intervene, other companies may be tempted to do the same to avoid their obligations,” Saoud warned.
The federation has now drafted a memorandum for the government seeking action on the regulatory and technological changes hitting the industry.
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FMES puts jobs at risk at 10,000
The Moroccan Federation of Outsourcing (FMES) sees a much smaller threat to the industry as a whole.
Its president, Youssef Chraibi, puts the number of jobs exposed to the French ban at around 10,000 out of a total outsourcing workforce of 150,000.
Cold calling represents less than 15% of call-center activity, he said, while the sector creates more than 15,000 jobs every year.
“It is still too early to provide a definitive numerical assessment after only three weeks. But we are seeing no destabilization of Morocco’s outsourcing sector, and there will be none,” Chraibi said.
He said none of the federation’s members had reported closures.
Chraibi also drew a distinction between small businesses built almost entirely around outbound prospecting and larger outsourcing companies handling customer service, back-office operations, BPO, digital services, IT and other work unaffected by the French ban.
Those companies had time to prepare, he said, shifting work and employees away from activities exposed to the new rules.
At Outsourcia, which Chraibi heads, affected employees were gradually moved to other operations before the ban took effect.
The group has closed no sites and launched no workforce reduction plan as a result of the French measure, he said.
“The real issue is not whether some telemarketing jobs are disappearing,” Chraibi said. “The question is whether the sector as a whole continues to create activity and employment.”
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AI adds to pressure on jobs
The French ban is not the only concern for call center workers.
Saoud said artificial intelligence was also beginning to cut staffing, citing a recent study by an international audit firm in France that reported an overall decline in employment linked to AI.
Major clients were also offering compensation packages to encourage employees to leave, he said.
For small operators, Saoud said, there are fewer options. They have less room to negotiate with clients, can struggle to recover money owed to them and cannot always move employees into other lines of business.
Chraibi said the employment balance would become clearer over the coming months, once jobs lost in outbound prospecting could be measured against workers moved to other activities and new jobs created across the sector.
