“Taxing seriously harms the survival of your tobacconist”: French tobacconists in mobilization

“Taxing seriously harms the survival of your tobacconist”: for the famous establishments that dot French territory, the moment is serious. From this Monday, September 7 and until Friday, tobacconists are mobilizing in the four corners of the country to protest against an increase in taxes on cigarette packets. A way to put pressure on elected officials and the government, a few weeks before the presentation of the 2027 draft budget.

Questioned by our colleagues from Le Parisien, Serdar Kaya, president of the National Confederation of Tobacconists, assures that this week is an opportunity to “show that tobacconists will never be silenced”. The week of mobilizations should end this Friday, September 11 in Vernon (Eure), stronghold of Sébastien Lecornu. A way, symbolically, to call for opening dialogue with the government. These mobilizations support the 22,500 tobacconists in France and the 10 million legal consumers, defends the president of the National Confederation of Tobacconists. And to drive the point home with parliamentarians who plan to increase tobacco taxes: “If taxes increase, we will be in mortal danger.”

Instead, the Confederation is putting forward two major demands: first, the freezing of the price of cigarettes, then, the end of the automatic indexation of tobacco prices to inflation established by the 2023 Social Security finance bill. Two measures which weigh heavily on the sector. “For two years, with the drop in sales, tax revenues linked to tobacco have been falling. If, in Bercy, they think that increasing the price of tobacco is a solution to finding revenue, they are wrong,” said the representative, in the interview with our colleagues. On this point, he can in any case count on the support of Marine Le Pen, who announced on September 6, in a letter addressed to tobacconists, that she intends to “support the freezing of taxes on tobacco”.

Taxation to benefit the black market

The taxation imposed on tobacconists indirectly supports the illegal cigarette market, says Serdar Kaya. “The number one impact of taxation is the development of the illegal market and a new economic model for criminal organizations,” warns the president. Although they welcome the work of customs and the police to combat smuggling, tobacconists denounce a certain “laxity of justice in the face of these traffickers”.

In addition, the president of the National Confederation of Tobacconists denounces the massive arrival of packages from other countries, such as Spain. An “open bar” from which the profession suffers. Vaping products should also be sold exclusively by competent professionals who are “extremely attentive to respecting the rules”, maintains Serdar Kaya.