NGOs Advise EU to Eliminate Roles Allocated to Tobacco Industry

The Smoke Free Partnership (SFP), a European coalition of NGOs working to mobilise governments to make tobacco control a political priority, has raised concerns about the track and trace provisions of the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD).

In a recent policy paper, SFP said the provisions should be amended to eliminate the delegation of responsibilities to the tobacco industry, in particular those which allow manufacturers and importers to appoint their own data storage providers and auditors.

Under the current regulations, the storage of tobacco track and trace data across the EU takes place at two levels: primary and secondary. Individual manufacturers and importers have their own primary repository for storing data relating to their products. The repository is provided by independent third parties that are nominated by, and that contract directly with, the manufacturers.

Although these third parties must be approved by the European Commission (EC) according to pre-defined criteria for determining independence, SFP has repeatedly voiced concerns that some third parties have long-standing, documented relationships with the tobacco industry. For instance, the current list of EC-approved providers includes at least eight (out of 10) companies with links to the tobacco industry, which raises questions about the effectiveness of the independence criteria, warns SFP.