The French Parliament has rejected new taxes on e-liquid and plans to equate e-cigarettes with smoking tobacco. After massive protests from vejp users, researchers and small businesses, the entire proposal was cancelled - a decision that also affects Swedish consumers.
There will be no taxes on e-liquid in France. This is clear since the the French National Assembly voted in favour of the 2026 budget. Article 23, which proposed new taxes, a ban on online sales and several legislative changes that would effectively equate vejp products with tobacco and cigarettes, was deleted in its entirety before the vote.
”E-cigarettes are first and foremost the most effective tool to keep cigarettes away and help people quit smoking. They should certainly not be regulated like cigarettes - unless the government wants to promote cigarette sales,” wrote trade organisation FIVAPE ahead of the vote.
The decision in the French Parliament was preceded by a heated debate in which French vejpare, together with e-juice manufacturers and small-scale shop owners, went head-to-head with the anti-tobacco movement to win the ear of politicians. Despite protests from several anti-tobacco activists, whose arguments centred on making sales to minors more difficult, it was the vejp movement that ultimately gained the most support for its positions.
Hundreds of thousands of vejpers spoke out
Almost 250,000 signatures in favour of stopping the proposal were collected and delivered to the politicians responsible. Demonstrations outside the Parliament were also supported by several doctors and scientists, who emphasised the role of e-cigarettes in helping smokers quit. As the proposal was scrutinised by the many governmental bodies that make up the French legislative apparatus, the content was increasingly slimmed down.
”All that remained was a requirement for retailers to be licensed to sell vejp products. The taxes were completely removed and the ban on online sales required so many clarifications that it would have been barely feasible,” the paper noted Vaping Post ahead of the vote.
Popular way to quit smoking
Today, nearly four million people in France vejp smoke. The independent vejp industry - i.e. companies not linked to tobacco companies - is made up of around 4,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, which together employ around 20,000 people. 27% of the French population smoke cigarettes and smoking is estimated to cause around 75,000 deaths each year. The companies in the vejp industry see themselves as the main competitors to the cigarette industry in the French nicotine market.
”Taxing vejp products in the way proposed would have been absurd”, notes FIVAPE. ”If the proposal had gone through, it would have been the death knell for the majority of vejp shops that currently help thousands of people quit smoking every year. It would have been a gift to the tobacco companies, who could then dominate the market with their own vejp products.”
Also affects Swedish vejpare
The decision of the French Parliament not only affects vejpare in France, but also has consequences in Sweden. The tax on nicotine-containing e-liquid in Sweden has led to an increase in prices from around SEK 20 per 10 millilitres to almost SEK 80 since the law was changed in 2021. Many Swedes have therefore chosen to import nicotine from other EU countries where no such tax is levied.
France has become a particularly popular option, not least thanks to a large supply driven by the much larger market for more advanced vejpning in the country.
”But price is almost the only reason. When a ten-pack costs as much as ONE shot in Sweden, it's not a difficult consideration anymore,” says the e-cigarette user Robin Fagerström to Vejpkollen.
“They want us to keep smoking”
The question was asked in Sweden's largest Facebook forum for vejpare, Vape Fam Sweden (18+). Robin Fagerström is one of many Swedes who import nicotine liquid from France. Once home, the French nicotine shots are used in the same way as the Swedish ones - to be mixed with flavoured e-liquid at lower nicotine levels than those sold ready-mixed.
At the same time, he argues that the political game around e-cigarettes is not about protecting young people from nicotine.
”As if young people haven't smoked cigarettes for years? They can still buy cigarettes everywhere. Going down the e-cig route like this just creates unnecessary and intractable problems. It's clear that the people pushing this line don't want people to quit smoking - if they did, they would have taken a completely different approach.”,
he tells Vejpkollen.
Ban on nicotine pouches and disposable vapes
Although e-cigarettes largely escape tighter regulation, it looks significantly darkening out for nicotine pouches in France. The same applies to so-called disposable models. Both nicotine pouches and disposable weapons will be banned from sale in the country from July 2026.
It will also be forbidden to bring - and even to possess - a can of white snuff into France.
