E-cigarettes in Italy

Italy: The Lazio Administrative Tribunal (TAR) has temporarily suspended a decree introducing retroactive notification fees for vapour products due by 30th July following an appeal by the industry association Anafe. The judges said the Ministry of Health had enacted the decree more than five years after the deadline set by the decree transposing the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) into Italian law. The TAR will rule on the legitimacy of the decree on 18th November.

Italy: Prime minister Mario Draghi has submitted his resignation and dissolved Parliament after the right-wing parties withdrew their support in the Senate. The next elections are due in September 2023 and the far-right Brothers of Italy are currently ahead in the polls, followed by the Democratic Party, League and Five Star parties. In the past, right-wing parties have generally supported a more lenient regulatory approach to new nicotine products. Excise duties on vapour products, currently reduced by a law approved in February 2022, will rise to around €0.25 per ml for nicotine-containing e-liquids and around €0.20 per ml for those without nicotine unless the new government amends the existing legislation.

Italy: The Custom and Monopoly Agency (ADM) has updated the lists of notified nicotine-containing and nicotine-free e-cigarette products, now containing a total of 21,341 products.

Italy: The Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) has updated the list of websites that do not comply with restrictions on advertising and long-distance sales of vapour products. Websites that are still non-compliant on 23rd June will be blocked by the ADM.

Italy: The Council of State will hold a hearing on 21st June on the fate of e-liquids without tax stamps that remain unsold, media reports. In January, following a lawsuit filed by e-cigarette manufacturer Smooke France in July 2021, the Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) of Lazio overturned a Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) circular from March 2021 which ordered the disposal of all e-liquids without tax stamps from 1st January 2022; the ADM then appealed against that decision to the Council of State, Italy's highest administrative court.

Italy: The Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) has issued a circular listing the new excise duty rates on e-liquids that apply until the end of the year. As of 1st April, nicotine-containing liquids will be subject to duty of €0.131303 per ml, while the rate for those without nicotine is €0.087535 per ml.