NEWS
TPD
Grandfather Rights And The
Most people who are interested in vaping will know that the
Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) comes into effect from May 20 this year.
What not everyone may know is that it is a piece of European
legislation which has to be given effect by new national laws in
member states.
In the UK the TPD will be incorporated into law by way of
what is called a Statutory Instrument (SI), in this case a
Statutory Instrument called The Tobacco and Related Products
Regulations 2016.
Manufacturers and retailers of tobacco products including
e-cigarettes will have to comply with a whole new set of rules
and regulations from May 20 this year.
However there is a ‘grandfather clause’ built into the TPD which
means that a number of products which do not comply with the
TPD will can still be legally sold for up to one year.
The main aim of this seems be not to penalise manufacturers
and sellers who may find that they have perfectly legal stock for
sale on May 19 only to find that the same products are illegal for
sale the very next day.
So the grandfather clause allows that existing non-compliant
stock to be sold as though the new rules were not in force.
The relevant provision is Article 30 of the TPD which deals with
transitional provisions regarding the new legislation and states.
Member States may allow the following products, which are not
in compliance with this Directive, to be placed on the market
until 20 Ma y 2017:
tobacco products manufactured or released for free circulation
and labelled in accordance with Directive 2001/37/EC before 20
May 2016;
• (b) electronic cigarettes or refill containers manufactured or
released for free circulation before 20 November 2016;
• (c) herbal products for smoking manufactured or released for
free circulation before 20 May 2016.
When it comes to vaping the important section is section (b)
which deals with electronic cigarettes and refill containers.
22 ISSUE 04 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE
Elsewhere in the TPD these two terms are defined as follows:
• ‘electronic cigarette’ - a product that can be used for
consumption of nicotine-containing vapour via a mouth piece,
or any component of that product, including a cartridge, a
tank and the device without cartridge or tank.
Electronic cigarettes can be disposable or refillable by means
of a refill container and a tank, or rechargeable with single use
cartridges.
• ‘Refill container’ - a receptacle that contains a nicotinecontaining liquid, which can be used to refill an electronic
cigarette.
So it can be seen that the exemption applies to both to the
sale of e-liquids and also to any component which makes up
an e-cigarette.
It applies to products which had been manufactured prior
to November 20 this year but anything made from that date
onwards must comply with the terms of the TPD.
This means that is is totally possible for businesses to legally
sell products which both comply with the TPD and which fail to
comply with the TPD during this transition year.
Interestingly Article 30 starts with the words: “Member States
may allow…” which implies that individual states may also
choose not to allow such transitional provisions.
According to an infographic compiled by ECigIntelligence those
Member States for which the grandfather clause will definitely
apply include Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and the UK.
Finally the UK’s Tobacco and Related Products Regulations
2016 actually follows the TPD to the letter, allowing for noncomplient vaping products produced before 20th November
2016 to be legally sold up until the absolute deadline of
November 20, 2017.