TPD – The Tobacco Products Directive – What Does It Mean for You?

TPD - Tobacco Product Directive - What does it mean for you?

TPD, or the Tobacco Product Directive, is a tobacco directive from the EU. Each member state has since been given the opportunity to enact its own legislation concerning the directive. The law came into force in Sweden on 1 July. However, it will not be until 1 January 2018 that you as consumers are affected by the legislative change. In this text, together with the accompanying video, we will try to simplify and explain the most important aspects that affect you as a consumer. 

Size of bottles containing nicotine

Previously, e-liquid came in many different package sizes; 10, 30, 60 and 120 ml were common. But with the new law, there will be a restriction on how large the bottles sold may be. Bottles containing nicotine may now be no larger than 10 ml and contain a maximum of 20 milligrams of nicotine. Liquids containing nicotine This means that new types of products have emerged. So-called shake and vape products, or shortfills. These are bottles that contain a larger quantity of liquid than 10 ml but do not contain nicotine. The bottle is also not filled to the top, which means that consumers can subsequently add a flavourless base liquid containing nicotine, known as a nicshot or nicboost. Another way manufacturers and we as distributors are trying to make things easier for consumers is, for example, to sell 3-packs of 10 ml bottles at the same price as they previously sold 30 ml. 

The tank/container on e-cigarettes

The hardware will also be affected to some extent. The tank, or container into which the liquid is filled in the e-cigarette, may contain a maximum of 2 ml, which is somewhat smaller than today’s standard sizes. 

Warning texts and package leaflets in Swedish

Products that may contain nicotine must be provided with a warning text and a package leaflet in the language in which the product is sold. 

Child-resistant products

The products must be child-resistant. This means, for example, that caps on bottles containing e-liquid must be child-resistant. The same applies to e-cigarettes.

18-year age limit

At cigge.se, this has always been self-evident. We also hope and believe that this has been followed by other retailers here in Sweden, but the sale of e-cigarettes and e-liquids has not until now been regulated by law with an age limit. No comments