The decree brings enlightenments on laboratory agreements for cigarette smoke analysis, the mandatory warnings and notification fees as well as the transposition calendar for vaping products.
Instances specify administrative duties for French vaping professionals
Advertising material in tobacco store raised discussions during the period of debates that surrounded the revision of the French law for health. The decree makes mandatory the presence of posters in any places where vaping products can be purchased. Their message will pinpoint that selling or offering vaping products to minors of age is forbidden.
For internet shops, “a permanent information banner on the payment page” will be the numeric counterpart of paper posters.
Notification fees are €550, an annual permit of €120 will be asked from the first year on for selling the products
It was pending decision but now the official notification fees are released. They amount to €550 per product to which adds an annual licence fee of €120, including the first year. These costs are only the administrative part of the procedure dedicated registration, banking of information, etc…”To these fees, the professionals will have to add the costs of analysis by itself, which will set the notification procedure to about €1000 per product” adds Charly Payraud, vice-president of the FIVAPE, “it requires analyzing the e-liquid, vaporize it and analyzing emissions”.
Some question remains regarding the definition of products with a huge impact like, for example whether or not the notification has to be made for any strength of nicotine for a given flavor. Another dark zone is with material because only “vaping products containing nicotine” are subject to notification. It is hardly believable that mods, batteries or atomizers enter this category.
How many e-liquids remain of the French marketplace on January 1, 2017?
The decree specifies to professionals and importers that they are given up to October 1, 2016 to file notifications for the products they expect to be in stores on January 1, 2017. After this date, the “6-month rule” applies and a file introduced on October 2 will only be allowed to reach the shelves on April 2, 2017.
To date, no manufacturer has started submitting samples for e-liquid analysis, as required by the law. They were waiting for confirmations to adapt their product range to the new legal framework. In the light of these new information, vaping professionals will now be able to take decisions.
The vice-president of the FIVAPE is worried with the analytical laboratory capacity, facing the large amount of samples to deal with until October 1. A workshop has been scheduled today at the Ministry, “We are doing what we can to have this delay extended by 40 days”.
