Are AI phone calls legal? The rules in the EU and France

Three sets of rules apply to every AI phone call

When an AI agent is on the phone for your business, three layers of law apply at once:

1. AI transparency — the EU AI Act: the person must know they are talking to an AI.
2. Data protection — the GDPR: you need a lawful ground to use each person’s details, and people must be told how their data is handled, including when a call is written down.
3. Marketing and telecom rules — the EU ePrivacy Directive and, in France, the Consumer Code and the Postal and Electronic Communications Code: when a call or an SMS is meant to sell, rules on consent, times and phone numbers apply.

The first layer is the same whether the agent answers a call or places one. The other two depend on who is on the other end and why. This page covers the EU and France; other countries have their own rules, so check the local ones before your agent calls abroad.

The requirement to disclose the use of AI: EU AI Act, Article 50

Article 50(1) of the EU AI Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, requires AI systems that interact directly with people to be designed so that those people are informed they are interacting with an AI system — unless that is obvious to a reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect person. Under Article 50(5), the information must be given clearly and distinguishably, at the latest at the first interaction. These transparency duties apply from 2 August 2026.

A natural-sounding voice on a phone line does not make it obvious. The European Commission’s Q&A on Article 50 names AI agents among the systems concerned and says the “obvious” exception must be read restrictively — so the disclosure belongs at the very start of the call. The Act does not stop you from handing ordinary business calls to an AI agent; what it demands here is transparency.

• What Weyvox does: at the start of every call — incoming, outgoing, and when she takes over a call from you — Cindy says that she is an AI agent acting for you or your business, and that the call is recorded for a call note. It is a product rule, not a setting, and it cannot be switched off. Alice’s replies to comments on your social media are signed as written by your business’s AI agent.
• What stays yours: never ask an agent to pretend to be a person. Weyvox’s Terms of Use and Community Rules forbid it.

Your customers’ data: the GDPR

A phone number, a name and what was said on a call are personal data, so the GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679, applies to every call. Four points matter:

• Who is responsible. For your customers’ data, your business is the controller and Weyvox is your processor (Article 28): it processes that data only on your instructions — your settings and what you ask the agents to do. Section 25 of Weyvox’s Terms of Use is the data processing agreement that Article 28 requires.
• A lawful ground for each contact (Article 6). Returning a customer’s call, or calling them about their own order or appointment, normally rests on the contract or on your legitimate interest. Calls and SMS meant to sell may need consent — see the marketing rules below.
• Information (Articles 13 and 14). People must be told who handles their data, why, for how long and what their rights are. The agent’s opening sentence covers the AI and the call note; the rest belongs in your privacy notice — on your website, for example — which should say that calls may be handled by an AI agent and written down as text.
• The right to object (Article 21). Anyone can object to their data being used for direct marketing, and then that use must stop.

On Weyvox’s side, data is stored in the EU. Some processing by AI providers takes place outside the European Economic Area, under the safeguards of Chapter V of the GDPR, and those providers may not use your data to train their models (Privacy Policy, section 6).

Recording: a written note, not audio

Recording or transcribing a call is processing of personal data, so the people on the line must know about it. For recorded calls, the French data protection authority, the CNIL, says each person must be informed at the time of the call of its purpose and of their rights — typically by a message at the start of the call, completed by fuller information in your documents or on a website.

• No audio is kept. Weyvox makes no audio recordings of calls and stores no call audio.
• “Recorded for a call note” means written down as text. On a call an agent handles, the conversation is transcribed as it happens and the agent writes a short note from it. The full transcript is kept for 24 hours; the note stays until you delete it.
• Announced every time. The agent says so at the start of the call, together with the fact that it is an AI agent.
• When you join — take the call over, or talk together with the agent — your words go into the same transcript. Calls you handle yourself, without an agent, are neither recorded nor written down.

If you record calls by any other means, any consent or right the law requires is yours to obtain (Terms, section 19; Privacy Policy, section 4).

Answering calls with AI: the simple case

When a customer calls your business and Cindy picks up, the caller started the conversation, so the rules on sales calls further down do not come into play. What applies is transparency and data protection.

• Cindy greets callers with your business name and says she is the AI agent answering for the business.
• She answers from your business information and quotes only your price list; when a caller agrees to buy or book, she records the customer and the order before saying goodbye.
• You can listen in, take the call over or end it from the app at any moment.

Two things stay with you: your privacy notice should say that calls may be answered by an AI agent and written down for a note, and anything important the agent arranged — a booking, a price, a deadline — deserves a check, because what an agent does on your instructions counts as done by you (Terms, section 11).

Sales calls in France: consent first since 11 August 2026

First sort your calls. A call about something the customer already has with you — confirming a visit, moving an appointment, a delivery, an unpaid invoice — is not canvassing. A call that tries to sell something is. For sales calls to consumers, French law changed on 11 August 2026. The official texts linked here are in French.

• Prior consent instead of an opt-out list. Article L223-1 of the Consumer Code, as amended by Law no. 2025-594 of 30 June 2025, forbids canvassing by phone — directly or through someone acting for you — a consumer who has not agreed to it beforehand. The Bloctel opposition list closed on 11 August 2026.
• What counts as consent: a free, specific, informed, unambiguous and revocable agreement, given by a clear positive act — and the burden of proof is on you. Under Decree no. 2026-662 of 23 July 2026, the request names your business and what you sell, consent lasts at most one year, withdrawing it is no harder than giving it, and you keep the proof for three years.
• The exception: no prior consent is needed when the call concerns a contract in progress and relates to it — including an offer of related or complementary products or services.
• Days, hours, frequency: even permitted sales calls may be made only Monday to Friday, except public holidays, from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 14:00 to 20:00 in the consumer’s time zone, and no more than four calls or attempts to the same consumer in 30 days (article D223-9, introduced by Decree no. 2022-1313 of 13 October 2022). Another time is allowed only if the consumer explicitly agreed to be called at a precise date and time.
• Some trades may not canvass at all: selling home energy-saving work, renewable-energy installations or home adaptation for ageing or disability to consumers by phone is forbidden, except within a contract in progress.
• What is at stake: a contract concluded after unlawful canvassing is void, and administrative fines can reach €75,000 for an individual and €375,000 for a company (article L242-16).

Calls to other businesses about their line of work are treated differently: the CNIL accepts legitimate interest, provided the person was told and can object simply and at no cost.

AI outbound calls: is an AI agent an automated calling system?

EU law is stricter about marketing by machine. Under Article 13(1) of the ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC, automated calling systems that work without human intervention may be used for direct marketing only with the person’s prior consent. France applies this in article L34-5 of the Postal and Electronic Communications Code (CPCE). For other sales calls, each EU country chooses between consent and an opt-out list.

An AI agent that dials and talks with no person on the line may count as such a system. The safe reading is simple: use an AI agent for sales calls to consumers only when you hold their prior consent, even where a call by a person might not need it.

France adds a numbering rule. Since 1 January 2023, the telecoms regulator ARCEP has reserved dedicated number ranges for systems that call many people automatically; ordinary numbers may not be used for them. Calls placed one at a time, each on a person’s explicit command, fall outside that rule. So give Cindy individual calls — one person, one reason — not call campaigns: Weyvox’s Community Rules forbid unsolicited bulk or automated calls. With Cindy’s Autonomy off, every call from the chat waits for your confirmation on a card that shows the number and the purpose.

SMS to customers

A text that confirms what a customer agreed — a time, an address, a price — is a service message. A text that advertises is direct marketing: under article L34-5 it needs the person’s prior consent, with one exception for your own customers about similar products or services, provided they could refuse when they gave their number and can refuse simply in every message. The CNIL explains these rules.

• Weyvox agents send only factual messages about your dealings with that customer — no advertising and no bulk SMS.
• A confirmation after a call goes out only if the customer agreed to receive it on the call. Otherwise an SMS is sent when you ask for it.
• The sender is never hidden: the customer sees the sender name “Weyvox”, and the text starts with your business name.

You still need the customer’s consent or another lawful ground to text them, and the marketing, telecom and data protection rules that apply to you and to the recipient are yours to follow (Terms, section 17).

Opt-out and emergency numbers

Anyone can bar their number from Weyvox. At weyvox.com/optout, a person confirms their number with a code by SMS or a phone call; from then on no Weyvox agent calls or texts that number, and auto-answer does not pick up its calls. The register works alongside your own duties, not instead of them: someone who tells you or the agent that they want no more sales calls or texts must not get any.

Emergency calls. Weyvox routes calls over the internet through a telephone operator. It does not replace your mobile operator or a landline, may not be able to reach emergency services such as 112, and may not pass on your location. Always keep another way to call them (Documentation).

What Weyvox does automatically, and what stays your responsibility

Weyvox cannot make your calls lawful on its own. It builds in what can be built in; whom to call and why is your choice, and what an agent does on your instructions or within the Autonomy you switched on counts as done by you (Terms, section 11; section 23).

Checklist: before you let an AI agent call your customers

1. Sort your calls. Service calls about an existing order or appointment are one thing; calls that sell are another.
2. For sales calls to consumers, hold prior consent — a clear yes that names your business and what you sell, valid for at most a year — and keep the proof for three years. With an AI agent, do it even where a call by a person might not need it.
3. Keep to the times. Monday to Friday, 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–20:00 in the customer’s time zone, never on public holidays, at most four calls or attempts in 30 days.
4. Check your trade. Home energy-saving, renewable-energy and home-adaptation work cannot be sold to consumers by phone outside a contract in progress.
5. Update your privacy notice. Say that calls may be handled by an AI agent and written down as text for a note, and that Weyvox processes this data for you.
6. Never hide the AI. Cindy says she is an AI agent on every call; never ask her to pretend to be a person.
7. Keep calls individual. One person, one reason — no lists, no campaigns, no advertising by SMS.
8. Set Cindy’s Autonomy. Off: you confirm every call from the chat on a card with the number and the purpose. On: she dials herself, in background tasks too.
9. Respect every “no”. Anyone who objects gets no more marketing calls or texts; numbers blocked at weyvox.com/optout are skipped automatically.
10. Check what matters, and keep a phone for emergencies. Review the bookings, prices and commitments the agent made, and never rely on Weyvox to reach emergency services.

Questions people ask

Hear how Cindy opens a call

Right after you sign up, the introduction includes a test call: Cindy rings your own phone, says she is an AI agent, and you play a customer — before you choose a plan. Weyvox is available for iPhone and Android.

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