Swedish Match: Lobbying of EU Officials
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Swedish Match: Lobbying of EU Officials, Tobacco Tactics, updated 05 February 2020, accessed 11 April 2024.
Background
Swedish Match sells two types of smokeless tobacco: snus and moist snuff. Combined these products generate about 62% of the company’s operating profit.1
Due to a snus sales ban in the EU, the company cannot sell in EU Member States other than Sweden. The company’s main markets are Scandinavia and the United States.
Engagement with Commission Officials
From 2009-2014 the EU reviewed its Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) which includes a ban on snus. Swedish Match unsuccessfully lobbied to have the snus ban lifted.
- See Swedish Match for an overview of its strategy to undermine the snus ban.
Among other activities, Swedish Match directly lobbied European Commission officials during 2010-2012, when the revised TPD was being drafted in the Commission. Other times, the company used the brokerage services of Brussels-based public relations firm Kreab Gavin Anderson.
The information presented in the table below was acquired from freedom of information requests and a Parliamentary enquiry into ‘Dalligate’. Note that this list of meetings is not necessarily exhaustive.
| DATE | Lobbying Target | Details |
|---|---|---|
| June 2010 | Commissioner Hahn’s Cabinet | Meeting between Kreab Gavin Anderson and Mr Zotti2 |
| 7 September 2010 | DG ENTR | Swedish Match presentation on the functioning of the internal market and public health3 |
| 5 October 2010 | Commissioner Hahn’s Cabinet |
Email request for a meeting to “brief you on the latest developments on this dossier”2
|
| 16 March 2011 | Secretariat General | Swedish Match and former MEP Karin Riis-Jørgensen meet with J. Nymand-Christensen, Director Better Regulation and Institutional Issues45 |
| 15 December 2011 | DG SANCO | Swedish Match sends DG SANCO email to share legal opinion of Professor Tridimas6 |
| 19 December 2011 | DG SANCO | Swedish Match, ESTOC, ESTA, and ECMA meet with DG SANCO. Swedish Match sends a follow up email to share information7 |
| 12 February 2012 | Commissioner Hahn’s Cabinet | Kreab Gavin Anderson arranges a meeting between Swedish Match and the Head of Cabinet, but Swedish Match cancels last minute due to Dalligate events, see email8 |
| 6 March 2012 | Secretariat General | Swedish Match and former MEP Karin Riis-Jørgensen meet with J. Nymand-Christensen4 |
| 25 May 2012 | Commissioner’s Hahn Cabinet | Kreab Gavin Anderson arranges for two lobbyists, one an advisor to Swedish Match, to meet with Commissioner Hahn’s Cabinet9 |
| 10 September 2012 | DG ENTR | Meeting between Swedish Match and DG ENTR, with a follow up email from Swedish Match providing snus marketing data to dispute a proposed ban on characterising flavours1011 |
| 18 September 2012 | Secretariat-General and DG-SANCO | Meeting between Swedish Match and two staff of the Secretariat-General, and one staff member of DG-SANCO4 |
| 12 October 2012 | Secretariat-General | Swedish Match sends a letter to request a meeting. This request was declined4 |
TobaccoTactics Resources
TCRG Research
- How online sales and promotion of snus contravenes current European Union legislation, S Peeters, AB Gilmore, 2013, Tobacco Control, 22:266-273
- The revision of the 2014 European tobacco products directive: an analysis of the tobacco industry’s attempts to ‘break the health silo’, S. Peeters, H. Costa, D. Stuckler, M. McKee, A.B. Gilmore, 2016, Tobacco Control; 25:108-117
- Quantifying the influence of tobacco industry on EU governance: automated content analysis of the EU Tobacco Products Directive, H. Costa, A.B. Gilmore, S. Peeters, M. McKee, D. Stuckler, 2014, Tobacco Control; 23:473-478
