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Disposable electronic cigarettes: France bans ‘puffs’

by AI | 13.Feb 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Stop disposable electronic cigarettes: following recommendations from the European Commission, France has banned “puffs”, these popular devices especially among young people who are fond of their low price and diverse flavors – mint, strawberry ice cream, watermelon, or chocolate.

This photograph taken in Paris on December 19, 2024, shows disposable electronic cigarette boxes, known as "puffs" - and nicotine pouches displayed in a store. (Photo: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Paris – After a unanimous lower house last week, the French Senate on Thursday approved the ban on disposable e-cigarettes by a show of hands, the culmination of a more than two-year process in Parliament with a passage through the European Commission, for this text which aims to remove “puffs” from high schools, colleges and streets.

France is thus on the verge of becoming the second European country, after Belgium, to ban their sale on its territory, a dynamic also followed by the United Kingdom, which announced their ban on sales by June.

In detail, to follow the Commission’s recommendations, the text prohibits the sale and distribution in France of devices “pre-filled with a liquid and cannot be refilled, whether or not they have a rechargeable battery.”

The European executive has given its agreement on the majority of France’s proposals, excluding however the case of devices that would be liquid-rechargeable, but whose battery would not be rechargeable. (February 13, 2025)