Critics: €12 Cigarettes “Too Lenient”

A French plan to raise the price of cigarettes to €12 ($12.94) per pack is “too lenient,” according to critics, reports Euractiv.

Speaking on the RMC station on Aug. 28, spokesman Olivier Véran said the government could raise the price of cigarettes to €12 per pack from the start of 2024.

But according to the French Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT), a lobby group that brings together anti-tobacco organizations, this measure is not up to the public health challenge.

“Only a strong and sustained policy will enable us to achieve an effective and lasting reduction in the prevalence of smoking in our country,” said ACT president Loïc Josseran, whose organization wants a pack of 20 cigarettes to cost €16 by 2027.

The ACT would also like to see an increase in the price of other tobacco products, such as roll-your-own tobacco, to discourage smokers of so-called conventional cigarettes from switching to these products.

According to the World Health Organization, on average, a 10 percent price increase reduces consumption by 5-8 percent in low- and middle-income countries and by about 4 percent in high-income countries.

After falling significantly between 2016 and 2019, daily smoking has stabilized since 2019. There are nearly 12 million smokers in France, according to data published by Santé publique France in 2022.