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Approximation of laws ° Labelling of tobacco products ° Directive 89/622 ° Health information and warnings ° Fixing by the directive of a percentage of the surface area of cigarette packets to be reserved for such information and warnings ° Option for Member States to fix a higher percentage for their domestic production
(Council Directive 89/622, Arts 3(3) and 4(4))
Articles 3(3) and 4(4) of Directive 89/622 on the labelling of tobacco products provide respectively that the indications of tar and nicotine yields and the general and specific health warnings that cigarette packets must carry shall cover at least 4% of the surfaces for which they are intended. Those provisions must be interpreted as meaning that, if they consider it to be necessary, Member States are at liberty to decide, so far as domestic production is concerned, that those indications and warnings should cover a greater surface area in view of the level of public awareness of the health risks associated with tobacco consumption.
In so far as those Member States cannot make subject to the same requirement products imported from the other Member States which comply with the minimum requirements of the directive, there is a risk of less favourable treatment for national products and of inequality in conditions of competition, although this is inherent in harmonization which confines itself to laying down minimum requirements.