The Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT) has filed a petition with the Council of State to denounce "the insufficiency of control and sanctions by the State towards tobacconists on the issue of the sale of tobacco to minors", according to a press release on Thursday.
"Tobacco sellers are breaking the law with impunity by continuing to sell tobacco products to under-18s," deplores the ACT, citing a survey by the National Committee Against Smoking (CNCT) according to which two thirds of tobacco sellers sell them to minors.
"While the State, and in particular the Ministry of Public Accounts, has the mission of sanctioning tobacco retailers who do not comply with the law, the public authorities provide the profession with real support, by increasing public aid year after year (4.4 billion euros of public aid over the period 2004-2027)," continues the ACT.
The association published its press release while the annual congress of the Confederation of Tobacconists was being held on Thursday, where the Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin, and the Customs service spoke.
"I would like to remind you that the sale of tobacco to minors is an offence punishable by legal proceedings and criminal sanctions," the minister said at the congress, welcoming "the efforts undertaken by the Confederation to improve sales controls," while asking them "to be particularly vigilant."
He also "asked Customs to exercise its disciplinary powers with all necessary firmness towards retailers who have been the subject of a final conviction."
In a reaction sent to AFP on Thursday morning, the president of the Confederation of Tobacconists Philippe Coy stated that "the sale prohibited to minors is a major subject within the network, which will be dealt with again during our congress."
"Between the Bob qualification program (officially benevolent tobacconists) and the equipment of control cameras via AI, tobacconists are fully concerned by the law and are committed to enforcing the rules," he continues.
"Moreover," Philippe Coy believes that "there is a real question to be raised about the ACT which, for 30 years now, and living on public aid funds, has been more concerned with stigmatizing the profession of tobacconists than acting against the prevalence of smoking. Where are their results and their actions on their primary vocation?", he wonders.
According to the ACT, this is the first administrative dispute brought against state services concerning the sale of tobacco products.
"While tobacconists in France are the main parties responsible for the failure to enforce the ban on the sale of tobacco to minors, the Minister of Public Accounts and the Director General of Customs will reiterate their support for the profession at their national congress today. This situation is completely astonishing," denounces Martin Drago, head of advocacy at ACT, quoted in the press release.
In its request, the association orders the State to "take all useful measures to ensure compliance with these obligations, and in particular to strengthen, both quantitatively and qualitatively (so-called "mystery shopper" methodology), the measures to control tobacco retailers and to include quantitative objectives, to provide for more frequent and dissuasive sanctions, up to and including withdrawal of the license."
She is also asking the State for 6,000 euros, and for the sanctioned tobacconists to display the sanctions on their shop windows.
In mid-August, the association sent the government a formal notice "to take all necessary measures to put an end to the failure to comply with the ban on the sale or free supply of tobacco and vaping products to minors."
In the absence of a response, she referred the matter to the Council of State.
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