The Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of proposed changes to European Union tobacco regulation lacks evidence to back its conclusions, according to a study commissioned by Japan Tobacco International (JTI).

“The RIA is not sufficiently robust and contains a number of significant shortcomings”, said Dr Gunnar Niels, director at UK-based economic consultancy Oxera, in a joint statement with JTI.
The impact assessment accompanying European Commission proposals made late last year provides no data to back its assumption that a declining smoking rate will come to a halt without revisions to the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). The RIA provides no evidence or analysis to back its conclusion that the smoking rate will fall by 2 per cent within five years of a reworked TPD, the statement says. Evidence backing changes in packaging, ingredients and regulation of other tobacco products is limited, according to the statement.
“This report further demonstrates that the proposal to revise the EU TPD has not been properly thought through. In the interest of quality regulation, we hope that Oxera’s conclusions will be taken into consideration before any new measures are voted on”, said Thierry Lebeaux, head of EU Affairs at JTI.