Focus on France Ian Sparks reports from Paris

EURO-REPORT

FOCUS ON... France

Ian Sparks reports from Paris on good news for the wine industry.

French wine producers are celebrating this month after MPs voted to overturn a law which made the media afraid to even ‘mention’ the nation’s most famous export for fear of being prosecuted for illegal advertising.

France’s strict 1991 law on the promotion of alcohol passed in 1991 meant it became illegal to ‘indirectly advertise’ alcoholic drinks on the radio, television or in print. The wording of the law – aimed at improving public health – was so vague and open to interpretation by judges that the media risked prosecution by even mentioning the drink.

Then in May, Bordeaux Senator Gerard Cesar proposed an amendment to a consumer law going through parliament offering a clearly-defined difference between giving information about alcohol and advertising it. The entire text has now been voted into law by both houses of the French parliament – despite rampant opposition from the health lobby.

In future, it will be necessary to prove a direct commercial link between the ‘advertiser’ and a specific product, and there will also have to be an intention to advertise, the mention of a specific alcoholic product, and a reason to think the general public would consider it an advert.

Senator Mr Cesar – himself a former wine producer – says the amended law will now allow for the difference between ‘information’ on alcoholic drinks and ‘direct TV advertising’ of alcohol, which will remain banned in France. He has won support from many prominent figures in the wine industry, including wine writer Jacques Dupont, who told Le Figaro newspaper that educating people about drinking wine is the best way to fight against alcoholism.

He said: “We live in France with this paradox: we are the country of wine, but we have the most restrictive legislation on alcohol in Europe. We are very happy to sell wine abroad, but at the same time the message sent by the Ministry of Health is ‘Be careful, the wine is highly poisonous! As a result it became impossible to even talk positively about wine on television in France because it would be judged as ‘encouraging alcoholism’. “It is as if we are treating the entire population as children who are blindly beguiled by any form of advertising and are able to take no responsibility for their own alcohol intake.”

The reform is part of the Loi Macron – named after economy minister Emmanuel Macron – which contains a raft of reforms aimed at boosting the French economy, including allowing more Sunday trading in tourist areas and relaxing competition rules between transport operators.

“We live in France with this paradox: we are the country of wine, but we have the most restrictive legislation on alcohol in Europe.”

Taxi wars

But meanwhile, there is no such spirit of competition in the French taxi industry, where cabbies staged strikes across France this month in protest at the government’s refusal to crack down on the car-sharing service Uber. The action which caused gridlock around major train stations and airports comes after Uber announced that is opening up its controversial Uberpop-booked via smartphone apps in three new French cities, despite it still being illegal.

Scuffles broke out on the streets of Paris when several taxi drivers parading as clients, tricked a group of UberPop drivers into picking them up and then attacked them. Taxi drivers also vandalised Uber vehicles, blocked access to the Gare du Nord station and put barricades on the Paris peripherique ring road in both directions.

Thousands of cabs also assembled in other major cities, blockading roads in Lille, Bordeaux, Nice and Lyon.

The strikes and violence were the latest example of the simmering tensions between traditional taxi drivers and UberPop, whose operators use GPS-enabled smartphones to link up with passengers. Taxi drivers consider this to be ‘unfair competition’ because Uber drivers charge less, and also have a 4-euro minimum fare, which is less than the 6.86 euros that the government has set for taxis.

Karim Asnoun of the left-wing CGT union, told the AFP news agency: “We will stage sit-ins, no marches. The aim is to occupy the entire space, because we are fed up. Our drivers pay taxes and UberPop drivers don’t. The public and their customers don’t see these problems. Around 40 per cent of the private hire cab drivers don’t respect the rules, UberPop especially. We are asking the government to do something but they’re doing nothing.”

UberPop is technically banned in France, and Uber drivers are not allowed to offer cabhailing services. Instead they must operate from a permanent base, but in practice this rule is seldom respected.

Transport experts say it is the legal uncertainties surrounding UberPop that have allowed it to flourish, and the American company has announced it will now roll out its services in three new French cities – Marseille, Strasbourg and Nantes.

Taxi union spokesperson Ms Asnoun added: “The existence of Uber threatens our entire livliehoods and we will simply not sit back and allow them to steal our business. The strikes will go on and on until the government outlaws their unsafe, unlicenced and illegal practices.” n