Lollipop is no chewing tobacco

ECJ distinguishes allowed from prohibited oral tobacco

Lozenge tobacco is not chewing tobacco and therefore largely banned in the EU. Only if the active ingredients are released during chewing, the sale is also allowed in Germany, judged on Wednesday, October 17, 2018, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg (Ref .: C-425/17).

In the dispute is about products of the brand "Thunder" of the Danish manufacturer V2 Tobacco. The city of Kempten had banned the sale of a dealer because it was illegal "tobacco for oral use". The dealer complained.

The background is the ban on "oral tobacco" in the EU. For historical reasons, there are only exceptions for Sweden. The ban also does not apply to tobacco products that are "exclusively for chewing".

The Bayerische Verwaltungsgerichtshof (VGH) in Munich has now asked the ECJ how to separate chewing tobacco and prohibited "tobacco for oral use" from one another.

According to the Luxembourg judgment, chewing tobacco is considered to be products "that can only release their essential ingredients in the mouth by chewing". Tobacco products, which can be chewed, but which also release their active ingredients by sucking or holding them in the mouth, are considered to be prohibited "tobacco for oral use"..

The products in dispute are marketed as "Chewing Tobacco". Whether the chewing is actually necessary, however, so that the active ingredients are released, must now check the judges of the VGH Munich. mwo / fle