Rabat – A French law banning unsolicited commercial phone calls has begun showing its first effects in Morocco’s call center industry, although the full impact remains difficult to measure three weeks after the legislation took effect.
Adopted in France on August 11, the law requires consumers to give prior and explicit consent before receiving commercial calls. Its implementation coincided with Morocco’s August holiday period, when many telemarketing companies suspend or reduce operations, making it too early to assess the law’s nationwide impact.
But initial signs have emerged in Casablanca. Some call center businesses have reportedly removed their signs and vacated premises, while others have declined to renew their leases. One center at Casablanca’s Technopark has already ceased operations, leaving around 50 workers without jobs.
Ayoub Saoud, secretary-general of the National Federation of Call Centers and Offshoring Professions, stated the sector has yet to experience the law’s full impact, with clearer effects expected as businesses return from their summer break.
The scale of potential job losses is also difficult to establish because part of the sector operates through small, informal structures employing undeclared workers, according to industry representatives.
The federation has therefore asked the government to intervene, sending a formal memorandum in Arabic and French to the head of government to call for measures to anticipate the impact of France’s regulatory and technological changes.
Industry federation plays down wider impact
The Moroccan Federation of Outsourcing and Offshoring (FMES) has offered a more measured assessment, arguing that the French law targets a specific segment of the industry: unsolicited outbound promotional calls.
According to FMES President Youssef Chraibi, this activity accounts for less than 15% of call center business, while Morocco’s wider outsourcing sector has increasingly diversified into customer relations, business process outsourcing, digitization, information technology, and AI-related services.
The federation estimates that around 10,000 jobs could be exposed to the changes out of approximately 150,000 positions in the sector. It also points to the creation of more than 15,000 new jobs annually as evidence that the sector continues to generate employment.
Chraibi said no closures had been recorded among companies affiliated with the federation, arguing that the situation of organized outsourcing firms should be distinguished from that of small, single-activity agencies heavily dependent on outbound calls.
AI adds to pressure on the sector
The French legislation does not affect all offshoring activities. Larger companies typically operate customer service centers, technical support, content moderation and back-office operations alongside outbound telemarketing.
These activities fall outside the scope of the new French rules and could allow companies to redeploy some employees. However, artificial intelligence is creating an additional challenge; companies increasingly use AI tools across several of these functions.
A recent study by an international auditing firm in France pointed to an overall decline in employment linked to the adoption of AI, while some major companies have offered financial incentives to employees willing to leave voluntarily.
Smaller outsourcing companies are considered particularly vulnerable because they have less capacity to absorb sudden changes in demand and may face difficulties collecting payments from clients.
The labor impact has already reached trade unions following the closure of a call center at Technopark, where around 50 workers lost their jobs. Conciliation proceedings at the labor inspectorate reportedly stalled after the company’s legal representative failed to attend, with the dispute subsequently referred to local authorities.
Shift toward higher-value services
The longer-term impact of the French law is likely to depend on how effectively companies can shift workers and activities toward other services.
Outsourcia, an outsourcing group, has for example been preparing to transfer employees from sensitive operations to other business lines and projects without reducing its workforce or closing operational sites.
The developments are putting renewed focus on Morocco’s transition from traditional call center activities toward higher-value digital and technology services.
For the industry, the key measure will ultimately be the net employment impact: how many telemarketing positions disappear, how many workers are retrained and redeployed, and how many new positions are created in alternative activities. That picture is expected to become clearer in the coming months.
