FAQ - Travelers

After the PABLO validation, the refund must be made according to the option chosen at the creation of this form:

  • Cash in the city or at the airport: You can directly go to one of our Change partners offices and present them your tax form. See the list of our partner offices
  • Credit/debit card: Fair Tax Free will credit your bank card after the form is validated.
  • Paypal: Fair Tax Free will to credit your account after the form is validated.
  • WeChat Pay: Fair Tax Free will credit your account after the form is validated.
  • Wire transfer: Fair Tax Free can credit your bank account after the form is validated. But this type of refund is not recommanded, given the potentially high charges levied by your bank.

The PABLO terminals are currently located at the following places: airports of Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, Orly, Paris-Beauvais, Marseille-Provence, Nice-Côte d'Azur, Lyon Saint-Exupéry, Nantes-Atlantiqye, Strasbourg-Entzheim, Genève-Cointrin, the port of Marseille, and border crossing points of Saint-Julien en Bardonnex, Pontarlier, and Vallard. If your exit point from the France is not equipped with a PABLO terminal, the form must be presented to the Customs service, which will manually validated the form.

In this case, you have to directly go to the nearest Customs office, with your form and the corresponding purchases to have it manually validated.

You should not check in any items listed on the tax refund form. Customs may need to inspect them.

The shop will provide you with this fallback procedure form manually filled out, along with a pre-paid international envelope. You will have to get your tax refund form stamped directly at the Customs office and not via the PABLO terminal, then send one copy to us thanks to the enveloppe.

Tell the shop that they must register and validate their account on www.fairtaxfree.fr in a few minutes. This onboarding is 100% available online, so we can handle your tax refund for this purchase.

  • In the case of a direct flight or a short layover (less than three hours) in another European Union airport, you must have your forms stamped at the departure airport.
  • In the case of a flight with a layover of more than three hours at another European Union airport, and where you check the relevant goods at the departure airport without being able to access them during the layover of if you are unable to access a Customs office, you must have your form stamped at the departure airport.
  • In the case of a flight with a layover of at least three hours in another EU member state and where you have access to the relevant goods and the Customs office, you can have your forms stamped ath the layover airport.
  • If you are leaving the European Union through one of the following two airports, you must complete all formalities in the French sector: Genève-Cointrin and Bâle-Mulhouse airports.

The post-facto regularization of the validation of a tax refund form is an exceptional: it is only possible if the Customs service is unavailable. In this case, you must obtain proof of export of your goods from the Customs service of your destination country, which will issue a receipt confirming the payment of duties and taxes owed on the import. Then you must submit a request for post-facto validation before the expiration of six month from the date of purchase to the regional Customs office where you left the European Union (see the portal https://pro.douane.gouv.fr for the addresses of the relevant regional Customs offices). Requests for regularization concerning tax refund forms that should have been stamped by Customs Services located in another EU member state must be sent to the Paris "Direction Régionale des Douanes et Droits Indirects de Paris": 16 rue Yves Toudic 75010 Paris.