Tighter EU rules on tobacco

KEY POINTS

Ingredients and maximum emission levels

EU Member States must require manufacturers and importers to submit lists of ingredients and emission levels. Emissions from cigarettes placed on the market or manufactured in the EU must not exceed:

• 10 mg of tar;
• 1 mg of nicotine;
• 10 mg of carbon monoxide.

Health warnings

The directive requires prominent health warnings on packs of cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco:

• a general warning of ‘Smoking kills – quit now’ or ‘Smoking kills’;
• the information message: ‘Tobacco smoke contains over 70 substances known to cause cancer’;
• other text and explicit images drawn from a list and picture library in the directive’s annexes;
• combined warnings that must cover 65 % of the front and back of the packet.

Ban on flavours and slim packaging

The directive bans:

• flavours, such as fruit and menthol, which encourage the uptake of smoking by softening harsher tobacco flavours; and
• attractive, slim, lipstick-style cigarette packages often targeted at girls and young women.

Electronic cigarettes

The legislation sets out safety and quality rules for nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes, including:

• mandatory health warnings on packs;
• a ban on promotional elements on packs.

Other measures

• Member States may, if they wish, ban internet sales of cigarettes and tobacco products.
• A EU-wide tracking and monitoring system is being introduced to tackle the illegal trade in cigarettes.

Traceability

The directive introduces rules for tobacco traceability and security features applied to tobacco products, elaborated in the following secondary legislation.

Regulation (EU) 2018/574 (an implementing act) sets out technical standards for the tobacco traceability system:

• packets must be marked with a unique identifier to record their movements through the supply chain, issued by an independent issuer and valid for 6 months;
• specifications for the data repositories to record the movements of tobacco products and related transactions.

This regulation has been amended by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/448.

Regulation (EU) 2018/573 (a delegated act) sets out the key elements to be included in data storage contracts between manufacturers or importers and data storage providers:

• primary and secondary (backup) depositories and a system router must be set up;
• other ancillary technical services must be provided on request;
• specifications on operability, availability, performance and financial and organisational independence of the services must meet minimum requirements.

Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/576 lays down technical standards for tobacco packaging security features:

• all unit packets must carry a tamper-proof security feature, composed of visible and invisible elements, to ensure authenticity;
• the feature must include at least five types of authentication, including overt, semi-covert and covert elements;
• at least one authentication element must be provided by an independent third party.