Legislation preventing the manufacture and sale of menthol cigarettes across the European Union enters into force today (20 May).

TRBusiness can confirm that the new rules, which stem from revisions to the EU Tobacco Products Directive (2014), include sales of menthol cigarettes in duty free shops.

The ban is understood to apply to capsule, click on, click and roll and crushball products, but does not apply to heated tobacco or e-cigarettes.

Other characterising flavours in cigarettes were restricted in May 2017 in line with a one-year stock sell-out period for manufacturers, but Brussels lawmakers allowed Menthol cigarettes (and products with more than a 3% market share) a three-year dispensation.

This followed protests from the tobacco industry and an ultimately unsuccessful legal challenge by Poland and Romania to the European Court of Justice.

According to a 2018 paper from the World Health Organization, menthol cigarettes account for approximately 10% of the global cigarette market and are used ‘disproportionately’ by the youngest tobacco users across multiple studies and countries.

The revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) came into full effect in May 2017, accompanied by changes to tobacco packaging, colour and font sizes affecting duty free in countries such as the UK under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016.

TPD rules meant mandatory health warnings covering 65% of the front and back sides of cigarette packs as well as roll-your-own (RYO) packaging.

The TPD rules on flavoured products also span (RYO) products but the likes of cigars, cigarillos and snus are exempt.

In the UK, the Appeal Court rejected a tobacco lobby appeal against standardised packaging for all cigarettes and hand-rolled tobacco in November 2016 following an original High Court challenge to from BAT, JTI and Imperial Tobacco in May that year.