Two companies involved in the sale and marketing of heated tobacco products in the Republic of Ireland, PJ Carroll & Company and Nicoventures Trading, accused the Irish state of transposing a European Commission directive into law and claimed the Commission had overreached its powers exceeded. delegated to her under the tobacco legislation adopted by the Council and the European Parliament.
According to the report, Ireland’s High Court will refer the European Commission’s attempt to restrict the sale of heated tobacco products to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Eureporter.
The European Commission will therefore have to explain why it felt compelled to strengthen its powers by including products that would have been exempt in the original legislation.
In the ruling, Judge Cian Ferriter is of the opinion that there are valid arguments to declare the European Commission directive invalid, as it completely bans flavored heated tobacco products, including Glo, the product at the center of this lawsuit and which is only heated but heated tobacco products. do not burn tobacco. The companies that brought the case claim that the European Commission made an invalid political choice by banning it.
The judge said the Commission had effectively banned a category of tobacco products that was new to the market, which did not exist at the time of the entry into force of the Tobacco Products Directive in 2014 and which had not been the subject of political and health assessments. .”, considering that “it is at least questionable that this involved a political choice open only to the EU legislator and not to the Commission”, and therefore referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union .
According to the judge, the Commission should have realized that it was a legally questionable product and therefore “exceeded the limits of the powers delegated to it”.
When the directive was adopted in 2022, four Member States formally submitted a joint objection, warning that this “use of delegated powers by the Commission is problematic and challenges the institutional balance, creating legal uncertainty and practical difficulties for all parties involved to arise”.
Source: DN
