Cigarette tracking rules risk being derailed by lobbyists

Starting from May 2019, tobacco companies will be required to show that they always know where their products are in the supply chain, to prevent them from smuggling their own goods to evade taxes.

But anti-smoking activists fear that the track and trace obligation could end as a dead letter if tobacco lobbyists succeed in convincing civil servants from the EU member states that the system could be controlled by the tobacco industry itself.

The obligation has been established in t...