Gabriel Attal announces a new plan to combat illicit tobacco sales

Gabriel Attal, Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, announced the implementation of a new plan to combat illicit tobacco sales, which should be finalized by the end of the year. According to Agence France Presse, it would aim to strengthen the resources of Customs[1].

This announcement follows the government's decision to take responsibility for the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS), by triggering a 49.3 in the National Assembly. The PLFSS provided in particular, in its article 8, for the indexation of taxes on tobacco products to inflation, an increase in taxation on rolled tobacco, as well as the creation of a specific tax category for heated tobacco, with taxation per unit, in accordance with the wishes of public health stakeholders. These increases have met with strong opposition from the industry and tobacconists, relayed by certain parliamentarians, pointing out in particular the risk of an increase in illicit trade. Gabriel Attal's announcement seems to seek to provide a response to the protests of the tobacconist network.

Modernization of the tools available to Customs

This new plan to combat illicit trade thus provides for strengthening the resources of Customs, which will benefit from new mobile scanners, designed to better detect tobacco products sent in postal parcels and express freight. Furthermore, the minister indicated that anti-tobacco trafficking groups will be deployed in large cities, with the aim of carrying out "snap operations". Similarly, Gabriel Attal announced that he wanted to integrate the issue of illicit online tobacco trade, in response to the alleged development of this phenomenon on social networks. Finally, with a view to deterrence, the government is at the same time considering strengthening criminal sanctions.

Increase in tobacco product seizures observed in 2022

In the motivations of this plan to modernize the fight against illicit trade, Gabriel Attal mentions the scale of seizures of tobacco products made by Customs. According to the minister, between January and "the end of August 2022, 464 tons of tobacco had been intercepted by Customs, compared to 402 for the whole of 2021". By continuing at this rate by the end of the year, seizures will have increased by 73% between 2021 and 2022, with purchases made outside the network constituting a tax shortfall for the State of 2.5 to 3 billion euros.

Customs tobacco seizures, an insufficient indicator for measuring illicit trade

Seizures of products by Customs are not always a reliable indicator to reflect the real evolution of illicit trade. As shown in the graph below, these seizures can vary greatly from one year to the next. Thus, between 2015 and 2016, tobacco seizures in France fell by 58%, which does not mean that the levels of illicit trade followed the same trend over the same period. The level of seizures is more dependent on the resources made available to Customs to combat this trafficking, the number of operations carried out, etc. Furthermore, given the geographical location of France, there is no evidence that the tobacco products seized in France were intended for the French market. Indeed, France is also a transit territory for tobacco, particularly to the United Kingdom.

How has illicit trade evolved in France in recent years?

Precisely because of its illegal nature, the consumption of tobacco from illicit trade is difficult to measure. According to a study by Santé publique France, "77.8 % of cigarette smokers [...] reported having purchased their tobacco in a tobacco shop in France during their last purchase. This proportion is stable compared to 2014 (78.7 %)[2] "These figures thus tend to show a relative stability of the parallel market between 2014 and 2018, which also includes a majority legal component (legal cross-border purchases).

FT

[1] 20 Minutes, Tobacco: Government promises “new plan to combat” illicit sales, 10/21/2022, (accessed 10/24/2022)

[2] Public health France, Places of purchase of tobacco between 2014 and 2018: results of the Public Health France Barometer, 07/16/2019, (accessed 10/24/2019)