Igeekphone July 14th, 2026
The controversy over neutral packaging for electronic cigarettes in France is moving from industry statements to the level of specific legislation. The official website of the French National Assembly shows that Bill No. 2726 was submitted on April 28, 2026, and is titled “The Bill for Implementing Neutral Packaging for All Tobacco and Electronic Cigarette Products”. It has now been referred to the Social Affairs Committee for review.
According to Le Monde du Tabac, Julia Neumaier, the general manager of the French subsidiary of Imperial Brands, responded to this proposal by stating that the regulation of e-cigarettes in France should prioritize issues such as sales access, age verification, online sales, and control of distribution channels, rather than using neutral packaging legislation as the main tool. Neumaier said that the industry “should not refuse to discuss; it is wrong to refuse the law; it is correct to accept the law.”
Bill No. 2726 aims to cover all tobacco and e-cigarette products.
Documents from the French National Assembly show that Bill No. 2726 was proposed by several lawmakers including Nicolas Thierry and Pierre Cazeneuve, and was submitted on April 28, 2026. The goal of the bill is to extend neutral packaging to all tobacco and e-cigarette products.
According to the proposal, this bill intends to cover all tobacco and e-cigarette products, including e-cigarette products containing nicotine, those without nicotine, or those containing nicotine analogues. The proposer claims that the relevant measures are aimed at reducing the commercial appeal of the products, while not denying the relevance of e-cigarette products to adult smokers in some smoking cessation pathways.
Article 1 of the bill proposes to add new provisions to the French “Public Health Code”, requiring that the sales units, outer packaging and external materials of electronic cigarette products be made “neutral and standardized”. The specific shapes, sizes, textures, colors, as well as the ways of indicating brands and business names, will be further stipulated by the French Council of State’s decree.
The proposal also stipulates that the relevant laws will come into effect on January 1, 2027, and some of the provisions concerning labels and penalties are planned to take effect on June 1, 2027.
The proposer believes that the packaging of electronic cigarettes has become an advertising medium.
The explanatory part of the 2726th bill states that France has imposed restrictions on advertising of electronic cigarette products, but some product packaging is actually becoming an advertising medium. The proposer believes that currently, some electronic cigarette packaging uses bright colors, complex graphics, flavor or sensory descriptions, as well as marketing elements from candies or products targeting the young population culture, thereby increasing the attractiveness of the products to young people.
The proposal also specifically pointed out that some of the new generation of electronic cigarettes have already approached the status of “connected devices” (smart vapes), possessing functions similar to those of smartphones, such as screens, recognition, calling, artificial intelligence, step counting and games, etc. The proposers believe that these products have further increased the pressure on protecting minors.
Therefore, the logic of this bill is not merely to expand the scope of tobacco neutral packaging, but rather to treat the packaging of electronic cigarettes as a marketing entry point that influences the cognition and consumption behavior of minors.
Julia Neumaier: The issues should be discussed, but the legal approach is incorrect.
Neumaier did not deny the problems related to minors’ use of e-cigarettes and product marketing. Instead, she believes that the industry should acknowledge the disputes and stop defending the improper marketing practices.
According to the statement published in Le Monde du Tabac, Neumaier believes that the industry needs to confront the factors in product names, visual designs and packaging presentations that might attract minors, and establish stricter and more targeted regulations. She calls for the cessation of the use of product names and visual symbols associated with connotations of candies, childification, gamification or toyization.
However, she opposed legislating on the issue of e-cigarettes through neutral packaging. Her main judgment was that what France was truly lacking in terms of regulation was not uniform packaging appearance, but rather the control over the actual purchasing paths of minors.
In other words, Neumaier’s position is not against discussion or regulation; rather, it is against using the packaging control tools for tobacco products to directly deal with electronic cigarettes.
Seita advocates “regulating entry” rather than merely “regulating packaging”.
Regarding the French Act No. 2726, the alternative regulatory direction proposed by Seita mainly focuses on sales entry and channel control.
Neumaier believes that regulation should prioritize addressing several issues: whether there is systematic age verification during the purchase process, whether violations of regulations will be properly punished, whether online sales are adequately regulated, and whether uncontrolled distribution channels are managed.
This approach contrasts sharply with Bill No. 2726: the latter focuses on reducing the commercial appeal of products through neutral packaging; Seita, on the other hand, advocates concentrating the regulatory efforts on “who can purchase, through which channels they can purchase, and how offenders will be punished”.
The statement published in Le Monde du Tabac also indicates that Neumaier believes that stricter but more targeted regulation, combined with corresponding enforcement tools, is the more effective response to protect minors and is also in line with the harm reduction approach.
Independent Electronic Cigarette Media: Should Be Responsible in Packaging, But Not Be Analogized to Tobacco Products
In its report, Oneshot Media agreed that the names, visuals, and packaging of electronic cigarette products should be more responsible, especially when it comes to presentation methods that might attract minors. The industry cannot simply deny the problem.
However, the media also expressed reservations about directly applying tobacco control tools to e-cigarettes. Oneshot Media believes that e-cigarettes do not contain tobacco, do not involve combustion, and come from a different harm-reduction product path from traditional tobacco. Therefore, they should not be treated as tools for controlling smoking when it comes to e-cigarettes.
Oneshot Media also pointed out that the data on the experimental rate of e-cigarettes among teenagers should be further differentiated by considering the context, such as whether it was an e-cigarette experiment alone, whether it was accompanied by tobacco use, and whether it contained nicotine. The media believes that the e-cigarette issue requires more cross-industry and on-the-ground experience participation, and should not be reduced to a single set of data or a single policy tool.
This viewpoint shares some common ground with Seita’s position: Both parties agree that the packaging and marketing of e-cigarettes need to be more responsible, but both oppose simply incorporating e-cigarettes into the regulatory framework for burning tobacco.
The background of the bill has strengthened the industry significance of the characters’ viewpoints.
After incorporating the original text of Bill No. 2726, Neumaier’s statement no longer merely represents the general opposition of industry professionals to the “neutral packaging” concept, but rather a response to a specific legislative path.
For the French and European markets, the core of this controversy lies in how e-cigarettes should be classified and regulated: should they be classified as similar to cigarettes and included in the traditional tobacco control toolkit; or should they be regarded as a product for adult smokers as an alternative to burning tobacco, and a differentiated regulatory framework established?
If France implements Bill No. 2726, the packaging design, brand identification, flavor expression, compliance labels and channel management of electronic cigarette products may all be affected. For industry enterprises, the balance between protecting minors, communicating information to adult consumers and obtaining market access will become a key issue in the regulatory discussions regarding electronic cigarettes in France and across Europe.