« The Court of Cassation has just ruled that in the state of the texts, the ban on smoking does not apply to the electronic cigarette. »
A traveler had been sentenced for violating a smoking ban while she was using an electronic cigarette in the enclosure of a railway station. The local judge had relaxed her on the grounds that the texts forbidding smoking were not applicable to the electronic cigarette.
La Court of Cassation approve his decision. For the Court, the repressive texts are of strict interpretation and the prohibition of smoking was provided while the electronic cigarette was not yet used. Moreover, it can not be assimilated to a traditional cigarette, the liquid mixed with air being diffused in the form of steam. Therefore, the texts relating to the prohibition of smoking can not apply to the electronic cigarette.
It is a general principle of criminal law that is recalled in this decision, namely, that of the strict interpretation of the criminal law. It is up to the legislator if it wishes to prohibit the electronic cigarette in places assigned to a collective use to expressly provide for it in an incriminating text.
A national tobacco reduction program plans to ban vapotage In some public places and frame advertising for electronic cigarettes.
Source : service-public.fr
