1,500 vaping professionals expected in Paris on December 9 to defend the independent sector.

With political uncertainty surrounding the budget vote, the government's stubbornness is causing vaping professionals to fear the worst. FIVAPE is organizing a large-scale mobilization in Paris and calling on vapers to march alongside professionals to save the No. 1 solution for quitting smoking.

More than 1,500 professionals and employees will come from all over France and gather at Les Invalides on Tuesday, December 9 at noon to march to the doors of the Ministry of Health.

Independent shops across France, nearly 3,500 outlets among the few businesses to survive in city centers, will also mark the event in their regions by dressing in black and alerting consumers. The French vaping industry, independent of tobacco companies, has no choice. The government does not want to listen to it, does not talk to it, does not receive it. Only visible mobilization can save an entire industry that has built itself up in opposition to tobacco, with which it does not want to be forcibly assimilated.

Protecting France's exception to vaping

FIVAPE members have no political background or union heritage. We are independent retailers and entrepreneurs who started from scratch, simply convinced by the disruptive innovation that is vaping. Today, we represent more than 25,000 jobs, and some companies in our sector have become European benchmarks for innovation and growth. It is therefore out of desperation that we are expressing our concern and calling on the Minister of Health for help.

Exceptional popular and parliamentary support

While in less than two months more than 220,000 citizens have signed the petition posted online by FIVAPE, and while members of the House of Representatives have removed Article 23 from the 2026 Finance Bill and senators have stripped it of its substance, we are extremely concerned that the government will take advantage of the chaotic adoption of the budget to force through its package of anti-vaping measures. This would spell the end of the independent vaping industry, to the benefit of tobacco companies.

Popular and parliamentary support for our industry is exceptional and cross-party. The scourge of tobacco affects all citizens, all socio-professional categories, and has no political orientation. "What product today can claim to unite more than 220,000 people in its defense? Vaping is disruptive and surprising, but its effectiveness in helping people quit smoking is undeniably unifying." (Jean Moiroud, president of FIVAPE).

The government must talk to us.

As the only association representing the profession that is completely independent from the tobacco industry, FIVAPE speaks on behalf of its nearly 1,000 member organizations. It has been actively cooperating with health authorities for over 10 years and has alerted them to various issues requiring vigilance on numerous occasions.

“However, the decision to kill off our industry in the 2026 budget bill was made without us. We were not consulted, we were not listened to, we were not received. The decision to sacrifice our jobs and entrust the trade of our smoking cessation tools to those who are at the root of the evil we are fighting, the tobacco industry, has been taken by the government. The Minister of Budget, Amélie de Montchalin, confirmed before the Senate that she wants to end the online sale of vaping products: this will immediately put 4,000 people out of work. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to receive us and tell us this to our faces." ( Jean Moiroud, president of FIVAPE)

FIVAPE would therefore like to reiterate the following facts:

• No consultation was conducted by the government and its departments prior to this destructive bill.
• Despite our requests, we have still not been officially received by the Department of Health since the beginning of this sequence, even though it has been our supervisory authority since 2014.
• All decisions concerning our future now seem to be made by the Ministry of Finance.
• The most robust scientific studies show that vaping can be a key factor in the success of the fight against smoking. They seem to be deliberately ignored by the Department of Health.

As such, the demonstration on December 9 is intended to formally call on the Department of Health, which we urge to assist us in this matter. We call on it to take back control and request the removal of vaping from Article 23 of the draft finance bill. We ask that it organize a working group with our industry in a calm atmosphere, based on factual and objective grounds, starting early next year.

Vaping should be regulated by the Department of Health.

On December 3, FIVAPE officially wrote to the Minister of Health to announce our industry's mobilization on December 9 in Paris and to request a meeting. We plan to formally submit the following to the Ministry of Health:

• the names of the more than 220,000 signatories of the petition
• the text of the petition
• the scientific studies that demonstrate that vaping is an asset in the fight against tobacco
• the list of concrete proposals from FIVAPE to regulate the vaping market and ensure its public utility

We hope that we will be heard and that the government will respect the two very clear votes that took place in the National Assembly and then in the Senate concerning Article 23.

“The urgent need to provide France with a budget must not be used as a pretext for sacrificing a tool for smoking cessation and 25,000 jobs in hundreds of dynamic companies, to the benefit of tobacco companies, which are clearly supported by the Bercy project, their regulatory authority.” (Jean Moiroud, president of FIVAPE).