NOBODY in France will be allowed to carry more than ten packets of cigarettes outside their home under a Bill passed by parliament yesterday.

The measure was hailed as a victory by tobacconists, who say that their trade is being killed off by people stocking up with cheap cigarettes across the frontiers in Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Germany and Italy. With taxes forcing a 40 per cent price increase in two years, French cigarettes have become the third most expensive in Europe, after Britain and Norway.

Under the legislation, Britons who buy large quantities of cheap cigarettes in Belgium or Spain will be liable to fines if they try to bring them back through France.

Parliament approved the amendment to the 2006 state health budget, despite the opposition of President Chirac’s centre-right Government because it breaches European Union laws on the single market. Parliament can turn the measure into law even if the Senate, which is also controlled by the Centre Right, delays it for a time.

The transport of more than 200g of cigarettes bought retail for personal use — 10 packets of 20 or one carton — will be banned, and the quantity that may be stored at home will be limited to 10 cartons, or 2kg. Legitimate commercial suppliers will not be affected.

“This is a measure that we have been seeking for a long time because of the parallel market that has grown up,” René Le Pape, the president of the Tobacco Sellers’ Confederation, said. “Between 15 and 20 per cent of the market is being supplied from outside . . . Students talk about going shopping on ‘fag car-share outings’.”

The black market in imported cigarettes is also growing, said M Le Pape, who speaks for les bureaux de tabac, the Napoleonic-era monopoly on tobacco sales.

To enforce the law, customs squads will have to carry out more spot checks on vehicles near France’s land borders. Such checks are routinely carried out now to keep watch on potential illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug smugglers.

Xavier Bertrand, the Health Minister, told MPs that he “fully shared their concern” about imported cigarettes but could not back the Bill for legal reasons. Under EU single market rules, France had no right to limit the flow of tobacco products bought outside the country and M Bertrand said that the European Commission would probably take legal action if the measure were confirmed.

Britain reluctantly accepted the free passage of tobacco for personal use from the Continent because of the same rules.

Applying logic that appeared to oppose the existence of his own profession, M Le Pape called on the EU to change the market rules for tobacco to recognise that “cigarettes are a special category because of the public health aspect”.

The Government has been making progress in its campaign to curb smoking, but the habit remains popular among the young, with half of school pupils between 14 and 20 smoking regularly.

France has long applied old customs rules regulating the movement of alcohol. No private person may carry more than 10 litres of spirits, 90 bottles of wine or 100 bottles of beer without a permit from the excise service. The 200-year-old rule has done little to curb French consumption.