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Abstract
Introduction Raising taxes is one of the most cost-effective measures to reduce tobacco use. France has a unique profile: it has high tobacco use prevalence and a state monopoly on tobacco sales for tobacconists who are both agents of the customs administration and a recognised tobacco industry (TI) front group. In this paper, we investigate the lobbying tactics and arguments against tobacco taxation mobilised by the TI and tobacconists in France.
Methods We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the two leading French tobacco trade media outlets (La Revue des Tabacs and Le Losange) between 2000 and 2020. We performed a manual thematic content analysis based on existing conceptual models of TI political activity, including the policy dystopia model.
Results Tobacconists actively lobbied against tobacco taxation, using traditional arguments highlighted in conceptual models (ie, the claim that ‘taxation increases illicit trade and is ineffective’), but also France-centric arguments (ie, tobacconists denounced the impact of cross-border shopping and highlighted their role as pivotal to community life in rural areas). We also found lobbying strategies mirroring those identified previously (ie, coalition, information management and direct influence in public policy).
Conclusions Tobacconists in France hold a specific status that gives them privileged access to government bodies that can be exploited to successfully lobby against tobacco taxation. NGOs need to expose these lobbying activities and alert the public authorities to Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that requires countries to protect policies from TI interests.
- Taxation
- Tobacco industry
- Public policy
Data availability statement
Data are available on reasonable request. Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The data (the two journals analysed) are available at the French National Library. For issues not available at the library, we asked the National Committee Against Tobacco and the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction to lend them to us.
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Data availability statement
Data are available on reasonable request. Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. The data (the two journals analysed) are available at the French National Library. For issues not available at the library, we asked the National Committee Against Tobacco and the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction to lend them to us.
Footnotes
Twitter @MillotAna, @EBeguinot, @petticrewmark, @Karine_Gallopel
Contributors KG-M is principal investigator. AM, KG-M and EB designed the methodology. AM conducted the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data. AM and KG-M drafted the manuscript. MP and EB critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. AM is the author acting as guarantor.
Funding This work was supported by the French National Cancer Institute, the French Institute for Public Health Research via the research project acronymed FELITAF (‘Forms and effect of lobbying from the tobacco industry and their allies in France’, grant INCA-2018-141), and French NGO ‘Comité national contre le tabagisme’ (National Committee for Tobacco Control).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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