Sale of tobacco to minors: an association takes legal action against the State to denounce the lack of control
They want that the law is respected. The Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT) filed a request before the Council of State to denounce “the insufficient control and sanction of the State towards tobacconists on the question of the sale of tobacco to minors”, according to a press release released this Thursday.
“Tobacconists transgress the law with impunity by continuing to sell tobacco products to under-18s,” deplores the ACT, relying on an investigation by the National Committee Against Smoking (CNCT) according to which two thirds of tobacconists sell them to minors.
“While the State, and in particular the Ministry of Public Accounts, has the mission of sanctioning tobacco sellers who do not respect the law, the public authorities provide the profession with real support, by increasing public aid year after year (4.4 billion euros in public aid over the period 2004-2027),” continues the ACT.
“This situation is completely astonishing”
This press release was published a few hours before the opening of the annual congress of the Confederation of tobacconists, where the Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin, and the Customs service are to speak.
“While tobacconists are in France the principally responsible for the violation of the ban of tobacco sales to minors, the Minister of Public Accounts and the Director General of Customs will reiterate their support for the profession this very day during their national congress. This situation is completely astonishing,” denounces Martin Drago, advocacy manager at ACT quoted in the press release.
According to the association, this is the first administrative dispute directed against state services regarding the sale of tobacco products.
In its request, the association enjoins the State to “take all useful measures likely to guarantee compliance with these obligations, and in particular to strengthen, both quantitatively and qualitatively (so-called methodology of mystery shopper), measures to control tobacco sellers and combine them with quantitative objectives, to provide for more frequent and dissuasive sanctions, going as far as withdrawal of the license. She also asks that sanctioned tobacconists display the sanctions on their storefronts.
In mid-August, the association sent a formal notice to the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Economy, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Health “to take all useful measures to put an end to the ignorance of the “prohibition of the sale or free offer to minors of tobacco and vaping products”. In the absence of a response, she contacted the Council of State.
