Back-door snus ban feared

Swedish Match has attacked reported European plans to further legislate on snus as an indirect attempt to ban the product, according to a Reuters story quoting the newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

The newspaper quoted what it said was draft legislation by the European Commission [the tobacco products directive] that sought to restrict the use of flavorings in snus.

Swedish Match spokesman, Johan Wredberg, said he had not seen the new commission proposal, but added that, if the report were accurate, it showed the EU aimed to ban snus inSweden– sales are banned elsewhere in the EU – by the back door.

To allowSwedenan exemption from the ban but then to make manufacturing impossible could be interpreted only as a way to try to ban snus inSweden, he said.

Wredberg said banning or restricting the use of flavors would mean Swedish Match could not produce snus the way it wanted to and in a way that was best for consumers.

The proposed law would allow national regulators to decide if flavouring levels were too high, but would allow the commission to intervene ‘if necessary’, the newspaper reported.