Changes in tobacco taxation

Next April 17, 2024, Royal Decree 47/2024, dated January 17, 2024, amending the previous Royal Decree 579/2017, dated June 9, and regulating certain aspects relating to the manufacture, presentation, and marketing of tobacco products and related products, will enter into force.

This legislative change is a consequence of the transposition into Spanish law of the Delegated Directive (EU) 2022/2100 and it stands out because it includes for the first time the definition of heated tobacco product as opposed to the general category, in the following terms:

"a novel tobacco product that is heated to produce an emission containing nicotine and other chemical substances, which is then inhaled by users, and which, depending on its characteristics, is either a smokeless tobacco product or a tobacco product for smoking",

Additionally, the prohibition of marketing tobacco products with a characteristic aroma or containing flavoring agents in their components (such as filters, smoking papers, packaging or capsules), or any other technique that allows modifying the smell and taste of tobacco products, or intensifying the smoke of heated tobacco products, has been extended. In addition, filters, papers and capsules may not contain tobacco or nicotine.

Finally, through this legislative change, the exemption from the obligations to include an information message and combined health warnings is withdrawn. Therefore, unit packets and outer packaging of heated tobacco products must include:

• The informative message: "Tobacco smoke contains more than 70 carcinogenic substances".
• The color photographs specified in the image library of Annex II of Royal Decree 579/2017, of June 9.

Thanks to Andrea Paz, lawyer at Fieldfisher's Tax Department, for her collaboration in the preparation of the article.