Unfair Competition: French Tobacco Merchants vs. PMI Company

According to the French media LADÉPÊCHE, on August 6th, a tobacco merchant at Saint-Pierre Square in France expressed dissatisfaction with Philip Morris International (referred to as "PMI company" hereafter) for promoting and selling e-cigarettes in public places. He believes this situation creates unfair competition for his industry.

Didier is a tobacco merchant located on the corner of Pagaminie Street and Saint Pierre Square, and he is very angry. As the only tobacco shop in the area, he has had to deal with promotional activities from PMI company for the past few weeks on e-cigarettes that can be recharged and disposed of: "They have four promoters stationed here and they have started promoting and even selling their e-cigarettes."

It should be noted that in France, tobacco retailers are prohibited from advertising tobacco products.

You can understand my anger. This situation is particularly unfair, especially when we know the difficulties tobacco merchants face in order to ensure their turnover. Personally, in June, I lost 20% of my turnover on traditional cigarettes, and I lost 1000 euros per month on e-cigarettes.

Since January of last year, the increase in tobacco prices has not improved the tobacco business. In June, tobacco sales in the Longd area dropped by 15%.

We have received a letter from PMI company sent to various bars in Toulouse to raise awareness of their business activity: "Our initiative is primarily aimed at inspiring consumers by offering smokers a chance to taste a well-known and high-quality brand of product for free. At the end of the tasting, we also provide a service to purchase tobacco products, avoiding the need for your customers to visit a tobacco store. Purchase two e-cigarettes for 8 euros, or a rechargeable e-cigarette with four flavors for 16 euros.

With such promotion, this tobacco merchant was particularly affected." Frederick Pele, chairman of the 31 Tobacco Merchant Union, believes that young customers passing through Saint-Pierre Square have no potential loyalty." He thinks there may be administrative procedures against PMI company in the future.

But I am worried that this will end up like the 2016 FloraJet incident, where a tobacco company was fined 750,000 euros for obstructing the distribution network of French games in FloraJet flower shops by distributing scratch cards." Frederick Pelé concluded, "In this tobacco incident, the National Federation must intervene.

The PMI Group has not yet responded to this.