EU will try again to ban tobacco ads

The European Commission will make a second attempt to ban the tobacco advertisements from newspapers, magazines and from the Internet, just months after Europe's Court of Justice overruled a EU ban on tobacco ads.

The proposal to restrict tobacco advertisements is to be finalised in June, according to EU Health and Consumer Protection commissioner David Byrne, quoted by Die Welt. The previous attempt to end tobacco ads, which would have come into effect this year, was overruled by the European Court of Justice last October for reasons of legal procedure related to the adoption of the law.

The commission justified, at that time, the adoption of the directive as a measure of harmonisation to prevent unfair trade advantages because some of the EU member states had already prohibited the advertisement of tobacco products. The European Court of Justice decided the ban was not valid because the issue at stake was not trade but public health, and the European Commission had no competencies to rule on public health across EU.

Health Commissioner David Byrne told Die Welt that the European Commission will take the ruling of the Court of Justice into account and will use the room of manoeuvre it has to propose a new ban on tobacco advertising in newspapers, magazines and the Internet.

The tobacco industry is expected to protest against the advertising ban and Germany, which does not have such rules, will oppose it as well. The tobacco industry has already received a serious blow last week with the adoption by the European Parliament of tougher rules on the sale and marketing of tobacco products.