The advertisement of tobacco products on German streets will be banned from January 2022, reported The Local de.

The ban comes as part of a draft law which was released May 21 and will be debated by the German parliament during the week starting June 1. Tobacco advertising is already banned in the media, but Germany is the only European Union country that currently still allows street posters and cinema advertising. A similar initiative failed in 2016 after it was opposed by the CDU/CSU bloc, but the party changed its position towards the end of 2019.
According to the report, the new law will also end the free distribution of cigarettes at events and will limit advertising in cinemas to films aimed at adults. The move will be in conjunction with existing measures, which aim to lower the number of smokers in Germany. Julia Klöckner, the minister responsible for consumer protection, told local media, “Limiting tobacco advertising on the street and in cinemas is long overdue. Above all, we have to protect young people, so that ideally they don’t even start smoking.” According to EU data from 2014, around 15 per cent of German adults smoke cigarettes daily, compared to an EU average of 19 per cent.