2,000 vape professionals mobilized in Bordeaux, Lille, Cherbourg, Vannes, Orléans, Aix-en-Provence and Strasbourg

November 6, 2025

With logistical support from FIVAPE, vape professionals mobilized in 7 French towns to demand the withdrawal of vaping products from Article 23 of the Finance Bill.

"Don't kill vape!" was the slogan of the movement that brought together participants in mobilizations organized by FIVAPE and its members in Bordeaux on Tuesday, November 4, and in Lille, Cherbourg, Vannes, Orléans, Aix-en-Provence and Strasbourg on Wednesday, November 5.

Between 100 and 500 participants, depending on the city, mainly professionals, entrepreneurs and employees, demonstrated their anger and incomprehension at the insane plan to equate vaping products with tobacco.

Call for vaping products to be withdrawn from Article 23 of the Finance Bill

A ban on online sales, specialist stores likened to tobacconists, punitive taxes on users for quitting smoking with vape... The French vape industry is threatened with extinction. The consequences: 4,000 jobs destroyed immediately, 21,000 more threatened in the short term, and 4 million vapers out of action, left to the mercy of the tobacco industry.

Health, economic, social and budgetary scandal

A few days ago, FIVAPE published an analysis of the impact of these measures:

back to smoking for almost 1 million people;
loss of sovereignty over products and loss of added value of more than €1 billion for the French economy, to the benefit of products from the tobacco industry and abroad;
social plan on employment, 25,000 people and as many families suffering;
a negative equation of nearly €400 million for the State budget.

In short, the project's initiators would be responsible for a veritable health and social scandal. The "French tech" of vape, which has already helped millions of people quit smoking, would be sacrificed to the tobacco industry and its allies.

Local media heavily involved

Press, radio, TV... The local media were very present at all the mobilizations in Bordeaux, Lille, Cherbourg, Vannes, Orléans, Aix-en-Provence and Strasbourg.

FIVAPE provides a real-time press review on its social networks: X, Linkedin and Facebook.

Attracting the attention of the media encouraged the movement, with journalists taking an interest and speaking out, and the public and elected representatives receiving direct, unfiltered information. Members of parliament and senators are beginning to react, taking the measure of the situation, jobs and the toxic influence of the tobacco industry, the only winner in the extermination of its best enemy: vape and independent professionals.

The fight goes on: nothing left to lose!

The industry has its back to the wall. It's a tidal wave of FIVAPE memberships, and just as many resources to fight for the sequence of the finance bill, and afterwards, whatever happens.

This time, it's gone too far. Vape professionals aren't going to let anything else go: misinformation about vaping, influence peddling by lobbies, threats and slander.

Over the past 10 years, one in two French people who have quit smoking have helped themselves with vape. Innovation, quality, safety... French vape tech should be a source of national pride, as it is at the forefront of the fight against smoking. We won't let our country sabotage the historic opportunity of vaping in the face of cigarettes, which kill 75,000 French people a year and cause 20% of all cancers.

Find below a gallery of images from the mobilizations in Bordeaux, Lille, Cherbourg, Vannes, Orléans, Aix-en-Provence and Strasbourg, totally free of rights and usage.