📊 Obligations for High-Volume Shops
Establishments selling more than 600,000 cigarettes per month must now comply with strict declaration and traceability requirements.
🔍 Key points of the new obligations:
- Detailed monthly declarations: purchase dates, times, invoice numbers, product brands, descriptions and quantities
- Customer identification: for sales exceeding 2,000 cigarettes, shops must collect customers' names and tax identification numbers
- Mandatory triple record-keeping:
- Register of invoices issued
- Register of invoices received
- Stock register
⏰ Restricted Hours in Pas de la Case
The new regulations impose specific opening-hour restrictions, which are particularly strict in Pas de la Case:
🕐 Permitted hours in Pas de la Case:
- Transport of sensitive goods: from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm
- Retail tobacco sales in the town centre: exclusively from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm
- Total ban: sales outside these hours and on mandatory closing days
These restrictions aim to better control the flow of goods and limit opportunities for smuggling, a recurring problem in the border area.
🔒 Moratorium on New Licences
Pas de la Case maintains a moratorium on new retail tobacco licences. No new authorisations will be issued in this area, a freeze designed to control commercial density and prevent the uncontrolled proliferation of sales outlets.
Nationwide, new licences require tobacco sales to be consistent with an establishment's overall commercial offering. In other words, businesses must show that selling tobacco logically fits with their main activity.
👥 Mandatory Staff Training
All operators handling sensitive goods must ensure:
- Proper training for their staff
- The implementation of internal compliance mechanisms
- Strict adherence to declaration procedures
🤝 Collaboration with Industry Professionals
These regulations were developed in close collaboration with:
- The Andorran Union of Tobacco Retailers
- The Association of Tobacco Product Manufacturers
This collaborative approach aims to ensure the new measures are both effective in the fight against illegal trafficking and workable for legitimate retailers.
🎯 Government Objectives
The Andorran government is pursuing several goals with this new regulation:
- Strengthen public safety by improving product traceability
- Combat smuggling and illegal tobacco trafficking
- Standardise practices among the various players in the sector
- Protect legitimate businesses from unfair competition
📚 Related articles:
- Complete Guide: Andorra Customs and Tobacco Allowances 2025 - Everything you need to know about the legal quotas (300 cigarettes)
- France: New Law Against Tobacco Smuggling - Impact on the Andorran market
- Buying Cigarettes in Pas de la Case - Quotas, prices and tips
- Cigarette and Alcohol Prices in Pas de la Case - Comparison and the best deals
- Shops in Pas de la Case - Where to legally buy tobacco
💡 What this means for visitors:
If you're coming to Pas de la Case to buy tobacco, these new regulations change nothing for individual purchases within the legal limits (300 cigarettes per person to re-enter France). However, they do ensure that the shops you buy from meet strict traceability and legal standards.
Things to note:
- Shops are now open only from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm
- The quality and origin of products are better controlled
- Legitimate businesses are protected from illegal competition
🔮 Outlook
These new measures are part of a broader trend of tighter regulation of the tobacco market in Andorra. They reflect growing concerns about cross-border smuggling and pressure from neighbouring countries, particularly France, to better control the flow of goods.
For retailers in Pas de la Case, these rules represent a challenge to adapt to, but also an opportunity to professionalise and legitimise their business.
Official text: Regulation on the control of sensitive goods, Government of Andorra