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The European Commission recently adopted a Proposal for a new Tobacco Products Directive. The Proposal has already attracted considerable legal and economic scrutiny from the Member States and the EU institutions. The Proposal is quite vast in its ambition; in our selective analysis of it, we mainly address what is proving to be the most controversial aspect: a policy shift toward fully standardising the packaging and labelling of tobacco products consumed in the European Union by mandating the use of shocking visual images to cover a significant part of the packaging and removing of scientific information. The aim of the proposed measure is to reduce smoking. Our analysis tackles the related, and perennial, trade versus health balance by assessing the need for and source of the proposed EU directive. To do so, we cover EU competence, global standards and a range of data to help contextualise the legal challenge. While we argue, overall, that the Proposal may be acceptable from a legal perspective, it may not tick other important boxes that provide a critical undercurrent to modern tobacco regulation.
