Just days after a green light from Brussels and pressure from civil society, France officially banned nicotine pouches on September 6th. The ban will come into effect from March 2026.
Given the toxicity and highly addictive potential of nicotine among young people, leading anti-tobacco associations such as the French Alliance against Tobacco (L’Alliance contre le tabac) have hailed this bold step as an important “victory” for public health.
The pouch ban, introduced by French Health Minister Catherine Vautrin as part of Paris’ broader fight against the “risks associated with addiction” and the increasing incidence of nicotine poisoning among young people, complements a series of recent tobacco-related measures that position France as a leader in this area, including bans on the sale of disposable e-cigarettes and smoking in certain public spaces.
Big Tobacco responded with predictable outrage, reflecting the opposition to tobacco control increasingly expressed by industry-aligned EU member states. In fact, the tobacco industry has blocked meaningful EU reform for decades, contributing to persistently high smoking rates in Europe and increasing illegal tobacco trade. As the EU prepares to free its tobacco control system from the influence of big tobacco companies, France’s new leadership couldn’t be more critical.
France at the center of the European struggle
France has become a key battleground in Europe’s anti-tobacco crusade. As the Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT) rightly noted after the ban in France, “nicotine pouches and new nicotine products are the new financial El Dorado for cigarette manufacturers” while cigarette consumption is declining, adding that these measures, wrongly described as “cessation tools…”, only aim to increase the market for nicotine addiction.
The tobacco industry’s aggressive response inadvertently reflects this truth: British American Tobacco (BAT) has criticized France’s “dogmatic approach” and warned that smokers would lose “regulated alternatives” to tobacco, while Philip Morris International (PMI) has also condemned Paris for “sticking to an ineffective prohibition strategy.” The ACT had already warned of this resistance in the industry in July and, together with nine other European NGOs, pointed out the growing political influence of Big Tobacco in the EU.
This commentary particularly highlights how the EU Commission’s response to France’s February communication on its plan to ban oral nicotine products has been stalled by intense lobbying from the tobacco industry as well as political opposition from “allied” member states. Significantly, Italy, Greece, Romania and the Czech Republic – which have collectively received billions in investment in production facilities from PMI, BAT and JTI – officially rejected the French ban.
Beyond oral nicotine, France has joined forces with the Netherlands and other member states in recent months to push for higher EU tobacco taxes – a move also opposed by the same “usual suspect” countries – in light of record levels of illicit tobacco in the EU, with France and the Netherlands hit hardest. Crucially, this plague is fueled by cross-border sales from low-tax border states like Luxembourg, which the tobacco industry deliberately oversupplies to avoid stricter regulations in Paris and The Hague.
Big Tobacco’s shadowy influence on EU track and trace
Unfortunately, the large tobacco company’s involvement in the illegal tobacco trade in Europe goes far beyond the fact that it promotes parallel trade by oversupplying low-tax markets. Not content with skirting tough tax systems – despite falsely blaming them for illicit trade in Europe – big tobacco companies have long exerted influence over the EU’s anti-smuggling traceability system, which, if effective, would reduce profits from illicit trade.
In keeping with its use of “friendly” member states, the tobacco industry mobilized a network of front companies and allied companies to operate key components of the EU system introduced by the Commission in 2019, including the Swiss companies Inexto and Dentsu Tracking and the French companies Worldline, Atos and four Atos subsidiaries. Through them, Big Tobacco promoted the Codentify system developed by PMI – a technology widely criticized by WHO leaders and tobacco control experts worldwide for violating WHO FCTC standards.
The industry worked through the Digital Coding and Tracking Association (DCTA) – a front group formed by PMI, BAT, JTI and Imperial to falsely portray the system as independent and WHO compliant – and sold Codentify to Inexto in 2016. In addition, Atos helped develop Codentify, promoted the system across Asia and worked with DCTA to facilitate its implementation in Lithuania.
Worldline, a former subsidiary of Atos, even called on the EU in 2015 to introduce “an industry-driven solution” while concealing Atos’ ties to big tobacco companies – blatant violations of the WHO FCTC and its Illicit Trade Protocol (ITP). This lobbying, driven by the tobacco industry, ultimately secured Codentify’s remnants within the EU system. In addition to Inexto, which admits to deriving most of its revenue from tobacco companies, Dentsu Tracking inherited key parts of Codentify through its 2017 acquisition of the system’s co-developer, Blue Infinity.
The fates of industry allies are changing
Fortunately, these companies’ ties to the tobacco industry have become increasingly exposed in recent years, causing their fortunes to decline in Europe and beyond. Last October, Inexto was excluded from an Ethiopian tracking tender for failing to comply with WHO protocol and failing to demonstrate its financial independence from the industry, a blow that followed similar public tenders and contract exclusions in Argentina and Pakistan. Inexto has even been excluded from public tenders in the EU, although paradoxically it continues to play a role in the Union system.
Atos has since been dissolved as a group and Worldline has experienced a decline in value worldwide following repeated failures of its core digital systems, underlining how unreliable and risky digital-only technology remains for consumers. Since then, these companies have abandoned their tobacco traceability departments due to their inability to demonstrate compliance with the WHO’s FCTC rules, leaving Dentsu as the last standing – a position that is unlikely to last.
In fact, Dentsu is facing increasing criticism from MEPs and NGOs for winning the Commission’s contract without a public tender and for failing to register on the EU Transparency Register despite years of tobacco-backed lobbying. Furthermore, the complete ineffectiveness of the EU system in curbing increasing illicit trade in the EU and the UK – where Dentsu operates a similar system – is a clear sign of defeat. No wonder, since this industry-focused system was never intended to stop illegal trade, but rather to create the illusion of oversight while concealing Big Tobacco’s complicity.
Even Big Tobacco’s recent attempts to promote the Codentify-linked system through PSQR – a FractureCode member of the industry-founded Coalition Against Illicit Trade (CAIT) – cannot convince authorities of its neutrality and ability to effectively combat illicit trade.
Time to fight back
As political and civil society pressure mounts, and even the Commission’s DG TAXUD admits that the EU system has failed to combat illicit tobacco, the industry’s position is weaker than it has been for years and presents an important opportunity to fight back. France is well positioned to take a leadership role: On September 24, MP Frédéric Valletoux will host a National Assembly event where members of the parliamentary Commission for Social Affairs will question representatives from major tobacco companies about the industry’s role in France’s emerging parallel trade.
Paris’ increasingly tough stance on tobacco control signals a turning point in Europe’s fight against addiction, but the momentum must not slow down. As Brussels presses ahead with its long-awaited overhaul of tobacco regulation to align with the WHO protocol – a key step towards the EU Commission’s goal of a tobacco-free generation – France and its allies have an opportunity to break free from the control of big tobacco companies and create a framework that puts public health above industry interests.
