Alternative tobacco and nicotine products in France
Heated tobacco products are regulated in France as novel tobacco products. The requirements for ingredients and packaging are therefore less strict than traditional combustible cigarettes. On this page you will find all our french content, including our in-depth analysis of the market and regulatory landscape. All our content is presented in different modules, depending on the type of analysis carried. Find out all key industry updates from our briefings, or our numerical databases for forecasting purposes.
Business briefing
Heated tobacco regulation in France
France is a highly centralised country, and any decision that could have a major impact on the tobacco industry will only be made by the central government in Paris, as was the case when the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) was transposed. France signed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003. According to the results of Baromètre santé 2018 – which were published in March 2019 – in 2018, 32% of 18-75-year-olds smoked tobacco at least occasionally, and 25.4% daily.
As confirmed by the Ministry of Solidarity and Health (Ministry of Health) and the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES), heated tobacco products are considered and regulated as tobacco products in France. There is currently no specific regulation for these products and the Ministry of Health has confirmed that the regulation of heated tobacco products will not change in the near future. They are considered novel tobacco products, and as such they benefit from less strict requirements compared with traditional combustible cigarettes, as confirmed by the Francophone Tobacco Society (SFT), an anti-tobacco association promoting scientific research into tobacco use.
