LATEST ALERTSSpain: Licences to operate a tobacconist’s business are being sold at auction for up to €7m, press reports. If the Tobacco Market Bill, restricting the sale of vaping products to tobacconists, is eventually passed this would represent a big burden for e-cigarette retailers who would have to turn their businesses into tobacconists.
/ SPAIN
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From February 2022, subscribers can view and filter individual regulatory alerts per region. If you want to get our monthly compilations, visit our alerts round-up section.
Spain: The Ministry of Health has launched a new campaign against tobacco and vaping products. The campaign – titled "The smoke does not allow you to see" – states that cartridges and batteries from e-cigarettes increase the amount of "electronic waste", especially disposable ones. More information on which legislation is currently being discussed at the EU level and what effect it may have on vaping products can be found in our environmental tracker.
Spain: The Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has criticised the Tobacco Market Bill draft, which aims to introduce sales restrictions for e-cigarettes – such as limiting their sale to tobacconists. According to the CNMC, it is "unjustified" that only tobacconists can sell e-cigarettes. It said that "it is not justified to apply the regulation of tobacco products to the so-called electronic cigarettes or vapers", and "they should have their own regulation adjusted to their features".
Spain: Deputy Aina Vidal Sáez has urged the government – in which her party, the left-wing Podemos, participates – to regulate nicotine-free pods exactly like nicotine-containing e-cigarettes. Sáez expressed concern yesterday about pods’ flavours and their use among young people. She criticised the lack of health warnings on nicotine-free products, which are currently unregulated and therefore not subject to packaging and retail restrictions.
Spain: The government of Catalonia is preparing a regulation that would ban smoking on bar and restaurant terraces and at the entrances of schools, press reports. The measure is aimed at reducing the smoking population in the region. To date it has not been detailed whether the prohibition would also cover heated tobacco or vaping products. According to the last Health Survey of Catalonia, the smoking prevalence amounted to 22.6% of the population in 2021.
Spain: The largest anti-tobacco organisation in Spain, the Smoking Prevention Committee (CNPT), has launched a campaign against tobacco and nicotine products, with the hashtag #stophumotabaconicotina (stop smoke, tobacco, and nicotine). The CNPT is urging the government to pass the regulations on vaping and tobacco products that it announced in May.
Spain: In October, for the first time in 18 years, new 25-year licences (a total of 203) to operate a state-owned tobacconist will go out to tender. According to the law, state-owned tobacconists are the only retail outlets allowed to sell tobacco-containing products (sales are also allowed in vending machines located in fuel stations, restaurants, and other adult-only facilities). Vaping products can currently be sold outside tobacconists; however, the government plans to ban sales outside tobacconists in the coming years. This initiative has been harshly criticised by anti-tobacco organisations, namely the president of Nofumadores, Raquel Fernández Megina, who has said it is a “suspicious” move and a consequence of the economic situation, as she found it contradictory to the government’s tobacco control plans (which reportedly have stalled).
Spain: The Smoking Prevention Committee (CNPT) – the largest anti-tobacco organisation in Spain, representing several medical and anti-tobacco bodies – has criticised the government’s proposal in the Tobacco Market Bill to open 203 new tobacco shops. If passed, the bill would restrict the sale of e-cigarettes and e-liquids to tobacconists only within five years. The CNPT says that instead of increasing the number of tobacconists, the current number should be cut by half. The CNPT also criticised the delaying of the Tobacco Control and Prevention Plan 2021-2025, which was meant to be approved eight months ago and has not yet even been presented. CNPT president Andrés Zamorano said he fears neither the Tobacco Plan nor the amendment to the tobacco laws that the government announced will take place before the elections that are due in November 2023.
Spain: The National Committee for Smoking Prevention (CNPT) has published a statement expressing concern about the widely reported decision of the Ministry of Health to stop work on an amendment of the Tobacco Act. The CNPT, which is the leading anti-tobacco organisation in Spain and is associated with medical and health organisations, is urging the ministry to confirm whether or not it will indeed abandon its legislative plans. It also insists on the need to approve laws that reduce nicotine and tobacco consumption and asks the ministry about the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2021-2025, which was meant to have been approved already. Both the Tobacco Act amendment and the prevention and control plan were intended to impose further restrictions on both tobacco and vaping products.
Spain: The Ministry of Health has decided not to continue with its planned amendment to the Tobacco Act, press reports. The government has decided there is not enough time before its term ends at the end of 2023 to undertake the reform, which would have banned smoking on open-air terraces, in cars with children or pregnant women present, and in open-air stadiums. It would also have established neutral packaging and further restricted the advertising of tobacco and vaping products. The amendment was framed within the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2021-2025, which was meant to be approved by June 2022 and now presumably will not be approved.
Spain: The National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT) has urged the government to implement the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2021-2025 and the consequent amendment of the Tobacco Law, press reports. The committee believes that e-cigarettes should be equated to tobacco products. The president of the committee said that their objective is to achieve a tobacco- and nicotine-free generation by 2040.
Spain: The Council of Ministers has not yet approved the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2021-2025, reducing the chances of the plan being enforced during this legislature, press reports. The government failed to fulfil its promise to make a decision on this plan at the Council of Ministers on International Tobacco Day, which was yesterday, 31st May. The chances of enforcing the plan, which would require amending the tobacco law and other regulations, are reduced with every passing week, as the 2023 elections approach. If approved, the plan would impose further restrictions on e-cigarettes, and they would be subject to an excise tax duty. Also, plain packaging restrictions are envisaged.
Spain: The Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) has warned that e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products are not safe and are not effective as a harm reduction method, press reports. SEPAR has referred to the risks associated with those products in a paper, and in the conclusions it affirms that harm reduction strategies are not useful tobacco control methods. It also concluded that despite having less harmful ingredients than conventional tobacco, heated tobacco and e-cigarettes do not necessarily cause less harm.
Spain: More than 85% of Spaniards would be in favour of more restrictive regulation of tobacco products and 72% would ban smoking on restaurant and bar terraces, press reports. The survey was conducted by the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC). Susana Morena, coordinator of the Smoke-free week (a campaign organised by semFYC) said the restrictions on smoking should be extended to e-cigarettes and tobacco-heating devices. She said there was a false perception among young people that such products were less dangerous.
Spain: ECigIntelligence has been given access to the draft bill on the tobacco market that the Council of Ministers approved last week. In this draft, the government proposes that e-cigarettes will be sold only at tobacco shops in five years. The draft will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny in the following months. If the draft is eventually approved, retail shops that want to continue selling e-cigarettes in the next five years will have to notify the Commissioner for the Tobacco Market within six months after the bill enters into force.
Spain: The Council of Ministers has approved the draft law on the tobacco market and related products. This regulation aims to fight the illicit trade of tobacco products and guarantee the safety of consumers. It aims to progressively equate e-cigarettes with conventional cigarettes and it states that within five years e-cigarettes will only be sold at tobacconists. The draft has not yet been made public.
Spain: The Spanish parliament has passed the "waste and contaminated soils" bill. The bill imposes restrictions on plastic packaging that may affect the e-cigarette industry. For example, single-use plastics (in which pods and e-liquid containers could be included, although the bill does not mention them specifically) will have to be marked as such on their packaging. The bill also intends to reduce the sale of single-use plastics by 50% in weight by 2026 and 70% by 2030. The act will enter into force once it is published in the state Official Bulletin.
Spain: The Ministry of Health has told the press that a draft amendment to the tobacco control law will shortly be finalised. Although the exact content of the proposal is not yet known, it is expected to include a ban on the use of tobacco products, including heated tobacco and e-cigarettes, in places such as outdoor terraces, beaches, and in private cars. It is also reported that plain packaging is to be introduced, although it is unclear for which products. It remains uncertain what other restrictions might be applied to heat-not-burn (HnB) products and e-cigarettes and whether nicotine pouches are to be included. Lastly, the press reports that prices will be raised, however, it is again unclear which products will be affected.
Spain: The government’s delegate for the National Plan on Drugs, Joan Ramón Villalbí, has expressed some concern over e-cigarette use among teenagers, press reports. The National Plan on Drugs is an initiative from the Ministry of Health aimed at coordinating and promoting drug policies carried out by the different public administrations in Spain. Villalbí said that, according to a survey on the use of drugs among secondary school students, almost half of Spanish teenagers have tried vaping at least once. “It is possible that many of those teenagers who tried vaping did so because they borrowed an electronic cigarette from a friend,” he added, “but this still makes us think.”
Spain: The association Nofumadores.org (non-smokers.org) has asked the government to prohibit the sale of tobacco and electronic cigarettes to anyone born after 2007 so that once they turn 18 they cannot buy those products and become addicted, press reports. More than 20 associations support this measure. Nofumadores.org has also accused the Ministry of Health of not being harsh enough with the tobacco industry.
Spain: The Ministry of Health has launched an awareness campaign against smoking and vaping outdoors in places commonly frequented by other people, such as beaches, parks and restaurant and bar terraces. Although it is not prohibited to smoke in such areas, the campaign aims to reduce passive smoking and vaping. The government revealed last year its intention of prohibiting smoking and vaping on terraces.
