French bid to ban disposable e-cigs likely to run into difficulties at European level

France is considering various methods for tackling disposable e-cigarettes, which the government holds responsible for increasing youth uptake of vaping as well as having an outsize environmental impact compared to similar products.

Deputy Francesca Pasquini of the European Green and Ecology Party and the leftist NUPES alliance presented a bill to the National Assembly earlier this month. The bill would implement a “complete ban on the manufacture, sale, distribution or free offer” of single-use e-cigarettes, which it calls “an aberration from the point of view of both public health and the environmental footprint”.