The prices of cigarette packs increased on January 1, 2024, in accordance with the decree published in the Official Journal on December 12. The increase may have reached 1 euro, and some packages now cost 12 euros and are even close to 13 euros. These increases are intended to dissuade the French from smoking.
In addition, new increases will occur in 2025 and 2026, a year during which the price of a pack of cigarettes will reach 13 euros, the government indicated. Parliament decided to change tobacco taxation based on inflation from the previous year instead of the year before last. Remember that tobacco consumption (cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, rolling tobacco, etc.) is responsible for more than 75,000 deaths per year according to Santé Publique France.
Today, most packs of cigarettes cost between 10 and 13 euros. In France, it is the tobacco manufacturers who set the sales prices of their packs of cigarettes taking into account the evolution of taxes levied by the State which represent around 80% of the price of the pack of cigarettes. They can pass on the increase in these taxes, which increases the price of the package, or reduce their margins in order to gain market share, which causes the selling price to stagnate or even fall. The prices are then approved jointly by the Ministry of Solidarity and Health and the Ministry of Action and Public Accounts. However, the government can encourage them to increase their prices by raising taxes.
The prices of the brands are in a pocket handkerchief but according to the current prices published by French Customs, the cheapest cigarettes in France are (for a pack of 20 cigarettes):
Given the price of cigarettes in France, many smokers take the road towards a border country, where cigarettes are often cheaper. But, are they really cheaper elsewhere? The answer in our slideshow below.
