Penalty threat over plain packs

French tobacconists are threatening to block the 2016 European Championships, according to a Le Figaro story citing a report on the website of the French daily, Le Parisien, Aujourd’hui en France.

The warning came last week, three days ahead of the introduction of standardized cigarette packaging and under a month before the start of the men’s association football championships, which are scheduled to be held from June 10 to July 10.

From May 20, tobacco manufacturers have been required to place on the French market only tobacco products contained in standardized packaging.

Bernard Gasq, head of the tobacconists’ federation of the Ile-de-France region (Federation des buralistes d’Ile-de-France) believes that the introduction of standardized packaging will result in a 50 percent decrease in tobacco-sector sales.

It wasn’t clear from the story how the tobacconists were going to block the championships.