A French MP wants to undo the pouch ban he's living under — with a tobacconist monopoly and a new tax
France banned nicotine pouches in April. A budget amendment filed this month would legalize them again under a 16.6mg cap, sold only through tobacconists, with a new excise tax phasing in from 2027.
France banned nicotine pouches outright on April 1, 2026. Six months later, a member of parliament has filed a budget amendment that would reverse that ban and build a legal, taxed market around it instead.
What happened
Ludovic Mendes, a French MP from the centrist Ensemble pour la République group, submitted Amendment I-1773 to the 2027 budget bill on October 9. It would create a new legal category for tobacco-free nicotine pouches sold at no more than 16.6 mg of nicotine per pouch, with anything stronger staying illegal.
Under the proposal, only licensed tobacconists (buralistes) could sell the product — France would run it as a state-administered retail monopoly rather than opening sales to general retailers. Buyers would have to prove they're 18 or older, and selling to minors would carry a fine.
The amendment also sets a new excise tax based on the weight of material inside each pouch: €22 per kilogram starting March 1, 2027, rising to €44 in 2028 and €66 in 2029, with inflation adjustments after that. Mendes' own estimate is that the tax could eventually bring in close to €200 million a year for the state, though the amendment doesn't back that figure with market-size projections.
Nicotine pearls and beads meant to be swallowed would stay banned under the proposal.
Why it matters
France's ban has been in effect since April 2026, based on a government decree citing health risks, including reports of nicotine poisoning tied to very strong pouches (some products sold before the ban carried up to 50 mg of nicotine). Parts of the decree dealing with manufacturing and exports were suspended after a legal challenge, and in July the Conseil d'État — France's top administrative court — referred cross-border production and trade questions to the EU's Court of Justice while upholding the domestic sales ban itself.
Mendes' amendment doesn't touch that court case. It's a separate attempt to write a permanent legal pathway into tax law, on the argument that a regulated, taxed market beats a ban that he says risks pushing sales underground and out of any safety oversight. His supporting text points to Sweden's falling smoking rate as evidence that regulated oral nicotine products can work as a lower-risk alternative to cigarettes — an argument French health authorities and the Conseil d'État have so far not accepted; the court said in July that the evidence presented didn't establish the smoking-cessation claims made for the products.
If adopted, the 16.6 mg cap and tobacconist-only distribution would be stricter than how nicotine pouches are sold in most of Europe today, but it would still mark the first legal pathway back into one of the EU's largest consumer markets since the ban took effect.
What's next
The amendment is one of several competing tobacco and vaping tax proposals attached to the same budget bill — others would tax e-liquids or create a new vaping tax category — and all of them still have to survive France's budget process. Mendes' text has not been adopted, carries no legal weight yet, and its final terms could change or be dropped entirely during negotiations.
Compare ZYN nicotine pouch prices across retailers at PouchFinder.
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