The law was amended to allow sellers to display e-cigarettes in the window of their stores. The amendment passed in the Assembly still prohibits advertising.
Advertising in favor of vaping has been banned on the airwaves, on television and in the streets for a good month in France. Despite this decision by the Ministry of Health, e-cigarette sellers were still waiting to be determined on their fate. The ordinance published in the OJ lMay 20 did not give any details on the future of their windows.
And if the French authorities respected a European directive to the letter, the storefronts of these traders should have been subject to the same binding rules as those of sex shops. But MEPs have just relaxed the advertising rules for electronic cigarette stores.
It is an amendment of the president of Alliance against tobacco, Michèle Delaunay, adopted on the night of June 10 at the National Assembly, which changes the situation. Introduced in the “Sapin 2” law (1) which will be adopted by a large majority on Tuesday, it amends the Public Health Code.
More precisely, its article L. 3513-4 in order to allow these stores “to refer to vaping products on their brand, and to be able to display their products (with the price), but without advertising in their windows”, specifies the text.
It also provides that “the size of the advertising posters authorized in these points of sale be defined in a decree for greater clarity”.
Michèle Delaunay on commissioned service
So why such a turnaround on the part of the government, hitherto braced on the ban on window advertising? According to a person familiar with the matter, this “disproportionate ban” (as it is written in the amendment) was contrary to the intention of the legislator. But it was above all “more drastic” than for tobacco shops, he recalls. These retailers have, it is true, the possibility of putting up a “carrot” type sign which refers to tobacco. Thus, the government feared to be sanctioned before the Council of State. And the vapers informed Marisol Touraine that they would not fail to seize it if the situation were to remain as it is.
Taken aback, the tenant of Avenue Duquesne (Paris) would then have mandated her socialist colleague Michèle Delaunay to rectify the situation.
(1) Bill relating to transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of economic life
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