No Thank EU – Forest launches campaign against excessive regulation on tobacco

Mon 29th July, 2013

Consumers and retailers invited to petition MEPs to stop the introduction of legislation banning tobacco products and restricting choice in the UK. 

The smokers’ lobby group Forest has launched a campaign to fight a European Union Directive that will ban tobacco products that are currently legal and severely restrict consumer choice.

The No Thank EU campaign gives retailers and consumers the opportunity to register their opposition to the proposed regulations that include a ban on menthol cigarettes and ten packs.

The revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) will also outlaw smaller pouches of roll your own tobacco, restrict the size and shape of cigarette packets, and impose larger health warnings on all tobacco products.

Forest campaigns manager Angela Harbutt said: 

“Prohibition doesn’t work. Retailers will be robbed of income from outlawed products. Denied choice, consumers will be driven to the black market where there will be a flourishing trade in banned goods.

“The Directive is proceeding with indecent haste. Members of Parliament have been denied the opportunity to scrutinise the proposals yet the impact on retailers and consumers in Britain is potentially enormous.

"Regulations like this should be a matter for elected politicians in Westminster, not unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. We urge retailers and consumers who share our concern to make their opinions known by supporting our campaign."

The launch of the No Thank EU campaign follows the success of Forest’s Hands Off Our Packs campaign which generated a huge response to the government’s consultation on plain packaging of tobacco. 

Over 420,000 people registered their opposition to the policy, over 265,000 of them via Forest.

For further information on the new campaign, visit NoThankEU.com.

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