Tracking tobacco costly

The chief executive of the UK’s Association of Convenience Stores, James Lowman, has said that EU regulations governing the operation of track-and-trace systems for tobacco products will place significant cost and time burdens on retailers, according to a Talking Retail story relayed by the TMA.

In the EU, the revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) foresees the adoption of a track-and-trace system for cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco by May 2019 and for other tobacco products by 2024.

Lowman said it was important to combat the illegal tobacco trade across the supply chain.

However, he said: “[T]hese regulations would place a significant cost and time burden on retailers, requiring them to register and pay for identifier codes for both their overall business and each individual store, and produce them each time they purchase tobacco”.

Article 8 of the revised TPD was said to have provided for the establishment of ‘a global tracking and tracing regime, proposed by the European Commission’s consultant Everis, consisting of national and regional systems…’.

Lowman said his association would be working with the UK government and the EU to amend the regulations.

A consultation on the proposals is due to run until October 2.