From the NY Times:
The regulation of e-cigarettes in Europe is part of a broader overhaul of the region’s tobacco rules, which have been in place since 2001.
The rules adopted on Wednesday go further than United States laws. Along with the e-cigarette changes, they will require that the top 65 percent of all cigarette packs be covered with health warnings and pictures of things like diseased lungs. They would ban all tobacco products specifically targeted at children, like chocolate cigarettes, as well as cigarettes that come in packages designed to look like lipstick or perfume containers. Menthol cigarettes would also to be prohibited, after a four-year delay.
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“This is a victory,” said Linda McAvan, the British Labour Party member of the European Parliament who guided the legislation through the chamber in the face of determined opposition from the tobacco industry. “The original proposal was stricter, and I would have voted for that, but the new law is anyway a huge step forward in tobacco control,” she added.
The fight will probably continue as Big Tobacco and e-cigarette start-ups looks to protect their business. For example, the tobacco companies’ case has previously been taken up by countries like Ukraine, Cuba and Indonesia in a challenge to Australia’s rules at the World Trade Organization, arguing that the regulations constitute “technical barriers” to trade and violate the companies’ intellectual property rights.
“I’m totally confident that we’ll be taken to court by the tobacco companies,” Ms. McAvan said, adding that it was “worrying that they may try to abuse trade treaties.”
Drago Azinovic, president for European operations at Philip Morris International, said in a statement on Wednesday that the revision to European law “represents a worrying departure from the E.U.’s basic standards of proportionate, evidence-based policy making, which will further erode intellectual property rights and undermine the E.U. charter where these rights are protected.”
