On 20 May 2024, the EU tobacco traceability system will be extended to include tobacco products other than cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco. As of this date, all tobacco products will be covered by the traceability system.
This is a substantial improvement to the capacity of the tobacco regulators and public authorities and will result in:
- detecting potential fraud cases in the illicit trade of all tobacco products
- eventually reducing the availability of their illicit supplies
- an increase in budget revenues from the taxes on these products
- enhancing public health protection by reducing artificially cheap supplies of illegal tobacco products affecting the uptake and general prevalence of tobacco consumption.
This extension requires all economic operators in the trade of tobacco products to comply with the rules set out in Directive 2014/40/EU, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/574 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/573. Consequently, each unit packet of these products will be marked with a unique unit-level identifier. All economic operators are required to record and transmit information about the products’ movements to the repositories’ system.
Tobacco products that are neither cigarettes nor roll-your-own tobacco and were:
- manufactured or imported into the EU before 20 May 2024
- not marked using unit level unique identifiers by Article 6 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/574
may remain in free circulation until 20 May 2026 and are not subject to the reporting obligations of Chapter VI of the Implementing Regulation.
