Overview

• On August 6, the Prefecture’s X account released a poster warning tourists not to buy from street vendors to disrupt illegal souvenir networks.
• The poster’s image, drawn from a September 2024 video, shows a white vendor, triggering mockery from public figures including Éric Naulleau.
• Far-right voices like Damien Rieu seized on the racial mismatch, highlighting that most Eiffel Tower vendors are undocumented Central African migrants.
• Sociologist Louis Braverman says these vendors are predominantly isolated, recent arrivals using street vending as temporary subsistence work.
• Authorities report over 6 500 procedures and seizures exceeding 3 000 kg of goods this year and recently arrested a leading street-vending organizer near the Eiffel Tower.