TPD (Tobacco Product Directive)

The European Commission’s plans for new tobacco and nicotine regulations have hit a major obstacle. The Commission’s own scrutiny board has issued a negative opinion on the impact assessment for the proposed Tobacco Products Directive (TPD3). Delays now appear inevitable, forcing EU Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi back to the drawing board. The EU’s efforts to […]

As Europe prepares to rewrite its tobacco rules, the EU has an opportunity to make a real difference to public health. But policymakers need to start in the right place. The goal cannot be to tackle all nicotine products with the same tools. The goal must be to reduce deadly smoking. Europe is facing one […]

Eight European governments (the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia, and Spain) formally asked the European Commission to take an extreme approach to the next Tobacco Products Directive (TPD3): freeze new nicotine categories, impose broad flavour and nicotine restrictions, curb cross-border sales, and preserve national powers to ban products such as nicotine pouches.  Youth […]

The Spanish government has taken an unexpected step in its ongoing regulation of nicotine pouches. After more than a year of political debate and over 4,000 stakeholder submissions, the Spanish government has now raised its proposed nicotine cap from 0.99 mg to 4 mg per pouch. While the level remains low compared with products currently […]

As the EU prepares its next major tobacco and nicotine legislation, there are two countries Brussels should study more closely. Australia and New Zealand chose very different paths. The results could hardly be more different. As the third version of the EU Tobacco Products Directive, TPD3, gets closer, pressure is growing from countries and organisations […]

A new analysis based on the European Commission’s Special Eurobarometer 539 survey is already being framed as a warning about nicotine pouches in Europe. But the same numbers tell a different story: nicotine pouch use remains low, smoking remains high, and the EU is missing one of the clearest harm reduction signals in its own […]

For too long, tobacco control has treated taxes, restrictions, and bans as the only serious tools for reducing smoking. But as Europe prepares its next generation of nicotine rules, that old playbook is no longer enough.  A Challenge to Old Tobacco Control Assumptions  A new scientific editorial is challenging one of the central assumptions behind modern tobacco […]

The European Commission has launched a new public consultation: Public consultation questionnaire – Revision of the EU rules on tobacco products and tobacco advertising. On the surface, it is about gathering views. In practice, however, the questionnaire raises serious concerns as to whether the EU is genuinely interested in what citizens think – or whether […]

At this month’s Technovation in Stockholm, scientists, policymakers, and industry leaders gathered to discuss the future of smoke-free products, including nicotine pouches. Haypp’s Markus Lindblad explained why online retail is structurally better at preventing youth access to nicotine than physical stores, and what framework is needed to make it work across the EU.  Lindblad opened […]

Poland has notified draft legislation that would ban flavours in nicotine pouches and prohibit all new nicotine products not covered by the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). While presented as a public health measure, the proposal raises serious concerns. In practice, it risks undermining fundamental EU principles and discouraging smokers from switching to less harmful […]