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France has finalised a decision (arrêté) to require pictorial warnings on cigarette packages effective as of 20 April 2011, twelve months after publication in the Official Journal. The decision was approved on 15 April 2010 and published on 20 April 2010.

France becomes the sixth EU country to require pictorial warnings, joining Belgium (2006), Romania (2008), UK (2008), Latvia (2010) and Malta (2011). Some non-EU countries (Switzerland, Norway and Turkey) have also required pictorial warnings based on images taken from the European Commission library of 42 images. Worldwide, at least 36 countries and jurisdictions have required pictorial warnings.

To view the 14 pictorial warnings selected by France, you can go to the Official Journal website and find the issue for 20 April 2010, then go to:

Arrêté du 15 avril 2010 relatif aux modalités d'inscription des avertissements de caractère sanitaire sur les unités de conditionnement des produits du tabac.

http://www.journal-officiel.gouv.fr/frameset.html

In revising its warning requirements, France has corrected the placement of the black border (3-4 mm in width) that is to surround the warning. For unilingual countries, the EU Directive requires warnings to appear on 30% of the front and 40% of the back, plus a border which is to be in addition to this space. By having proper compliance with the border/size requirement, the effective size used on the package is 43% front and 53% back, though this can vary slightly depending on package format. France was previously non-compliant with the EU Directive. Previously in France, the border was located inside the space reserved for the warning (30% front, 40% back), thus making the warning size smaller.