Sponsored by a Green Party MP, the bill is currently circulating in the halls of the French National Assembly. It could be debated as early as next month.

A draft bill aims to extend plain packaging to all tobacco and vaping products – including cigars. The text, drafted by Green Party MP Nicolas Thierry, is currently circulating in the halls of the French National Assembly.

It contains three articles. The first provides for plain packaging for vaping products, whether or not they contain nicotine. The second article proposes extending plain packaging to other tobacco products, namely cigars, cigarillos (machine made cigars), pipe tobacco, shisha, chewing tobacco, snuff, and heated tobacco. The third article concerns the implementation of the proposed law.

“This proposed law is in line with public policies to combat addiction and protect minors,” reads the explanatory memorandum. It aims to extend the principle of plain packaging to all tobacco and vaping products, whether or not they contain nicotine or a nicotine analogue, in order to reduce their commercial appeal.

“Like the provisions applicable to tobacco cigarettes and rolling tobacco, plain and standardized packaging for other tobacco products, including heated tobacco and vaping devices, helps limit the impact of marketing on consumer behavior, increase the visibility of health warnings, and ensure clear and objective information for consumers,” the text continues.

Example of “plain packaging” applied to cigars in Canada.

The draft bill relies on the future drafting of two decrees by the Conseil d’Etat to “establish the conditions for neutrality and standardization, particularly regarding shape, size, texture, and color, and the procedures for registering trademarks and trade names on these packaging.”

The text is currently circulating among members of parliament to obtain co-signatures from several political groups, which would allow it to be placed on the agenda of the National Assembly as a cross-party bill, either between May 11 and 17 or between June 1 and 7, 2026.

Plain packaging has been mandatory for cigarettes in France since 2017. Australia, Ireland, Canada, and Singapore are among the few countries to also require it for handmade cigars. The measure is scheduled to come into effect in Belgium on June 1, although it is being challenged by the cigar industry in the Belgian courts.