The TPD (Tobbaco Products Directive) is a European directive.

It commonly describes the European directive on tobacco products. This directive bears the exact name “Directive 2014/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council”. In particular, it regulates vaping products as related tobacco products by imposing certain regulations on member countries.

A directive is a European legal act emanating from the European Parliament. This directive obliges Member States to achieve a fixed objective by a certain date, but also leaves Member States complete freedom to choose the form or means to be implemented to achieve this objective.

The Ordinance - May 2016

Without going into technical legal detail, this is for the French government to transpose the European directive.

In practice, the ordinance therefore integrates, into its own national laws, what was decided at European level.

It was agreed by the European Union that each country had to implement this transposition before May 20, 2016. France therefore published Order No. 2016-623 of May 19 on May 20, 2016. 2016 transposing Directive 2014/40/EU on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products.

The part of this ordinance that interests us is Chapter III, which is devoted solely to Vaping Products .

In this Ordinance, extremely important elements concerning the daily life of the vaper are to be specified by orders such as for example the safety device which must be present on an electronic cigarette or a clearomizer, the capacity of a clearomizer or that of a bottle of e-liquid ...

• Art. L. 3513-9 : Vaping products containing nicotine include a safety device whose characteristics are determined by order of the Minister responsible for health.

• Art. L. 3513-15 : An order from the Minister responsible for Health defines the maximum volume for the reservoir of disposable electronic vaping devices and single-use cartridges and for refill bottles containing nicotine.

• Art. L. 3513-16 : All packaging units and all exterior packaging of vaping products containing nicotine mention:

The Orders - May 2016

The Minister of Social Affairs and Health orders that:

Order of May 19, 2016 relating to vaping products containing nicotine

• A bottle of e-liquid must not exceed a capacity of 10 ml and a dosage greater than 20 milligrams per milliliter of nicotine.
• Bottles of e-liquid, electronic cigarette or mod must include a device intended to protect children, must be break-proof and leak-proof.
• A clearomizer or integrated refill should not exceed 2 milliliters.
  

Order of May 19, 2016 relating to the conditions for registering health warnings on the packaging units of tobacco products, vaping products, plant-based smoking products other than tobacco and cigarette rolling papers.

• The affixing of certain mandatory information on e-liquid bottles as well as the following health message: “ The nicotine contained in this product is highly addictive. Its use by non-smokers is not recommended. »

According to article 16 of this last decree, manufacturers producing non-compliant tobacco products can sell their stock until November 20, 2016. These same products can be marketed until January 1, 2017.

TPD and E-liquid: the consequences

We can therefore simply summarize these new constraints with regard to e-liquids as:

• Ban on the sale of e-liquids with a capacity greater than 10ml and a nicotine level greater than 20 mg/ml.
• Child safety required.
• Obligation to display a health message and various information in French on the label.

Our analysis :

Nicotine level:

Regarding the maximum nicotine level, this will have absolutely no impact! Since the explosion of the e-cigarette market, almost all e-liquid manufacturers offer their references in 0, 3, 6, 12, 18 mg of nicotine per milliliter. Exceeding 20 mg is of no real interest since 18 mg of nicotine is already more than enough for very heavy smokers and is consumed less and less by vapers.

Child safety:

As far as child safety is concerned, all 10 ml bottles have included this safety for a long time, not much can be done in that regard. Today we still find many “premium” 30 ml e-liquid bottles which do not contain this security, but due to the fact that these bottles larger than 10 ml will simply be prohibited, we do not ask any more questions than that about them.

Ban on bottles larger than 10ml:

Banning bottles larger than 10 ml will, on the other hand, have an impact on the selling price of e-liquids. In fact, when you buy a 30ml bottle of e-liquid, you pay less for it than if you bought three 10ml bottles since there is only one container, only one label, only one. bottling process.

Display and warning in French:

This means that foreign e-liquid brands wishing to export their product to Europe will have to display the following health message on all e-liquid bottles in the language of the country where the bottle is sold.

For France the message is as follows:

"The nicotine contained in this product is highly addictive. Its use by non-smokers is not recommended."

The sale of electronic cigarettes and e liquid is prohibited to minors.