The next phase of the review of the Tobacco Taxation Directive has started. A public consultation is now open, ending on 22 June. The Roadmap consultation earlier this year only received 134 submissions. It is really important for consumers to give their views now.
Most of the consultation questions are about smoked tobacco products but there are some questions relating to “new products”, such as vaping products and heated tobacco products.
The reasoning for including new products:
The rules are also not able to cope with market developments and the entry into the market of new products.
Consumers should be worried, because this review is tied into Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan:
The current EU rules are therefore being reviewed to ensure that they remain fit for purpose and can contribute to the ambitions of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.
The Commission has used Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan to signal its intention to crack down on vaping and other safer nicotine products. The Commission wants flavour bans, high taxation and restrictions on use - measures which will keep people smoking.
Please take this opportunity to tell the Commission that safer alternatives to smoking must remain affordable, for the sake of our health.
Link to the general page: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12645-Tobacco-taxation-excise-duties-for-manufactured-tobacco-products-updated-rules-
Link to the public consultation: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12645-Tobacco-taxation-excise-duties-for-manufactured-tobacco-products-updated-rules-/public-consultation
ACCESSING THE CONSULTATION
The questionnaire is available in most or all official EU languages and your response may be in any official EU language.
You need to access the questionnaire using EU Login. We used a Google account and could access the questionnaire immediately.
Organisations taking part in this and other EU consultations must be registered on the EU Transparency Register. Registering is a straightforward process and we urge all consumer groups to do this.
THE QUESTIONNAIRE
This is an easy consultation to take part in and consists mostly of tick box answers. There are 3 sections where you can expand on your answers if you want to give more details, and an option to upload a supporting document or position paper at the very end.
You can see the questions by logging into the EU portal, clicking on 'Respond to the questionnaire' and then downloading the document as a PDF:
You do not need to answer every question in the questionnaire. We will give answers for Section 1 (our details) and Section 3 (tax regimes for new products)
Here are screenshots for the questions in Section 3 Taxation of new products ( English version):
At the end of the questionnaire there is this option to upload a file:
For discussion on tax in relation to safer nicotine products please see New Nicotine Alliance UK’s tax briefing and also our new “ETHRA tax talking points” document.
THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING TO THE CONSULTATION - LET’S DO ALL WE CAN TO KEEP SAFER ALTERNATIVES TO SMOKING ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE