European Smokeless Tobacco Council

This page was archived on 1 October 2020 and is not actively maintained

This organisation is now defunct.

The European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC) is a lobbying group that campaigns against the European Union’s ban on oral tobacco products. The organisation represents the interests of smokeless tobacco manufacturers and distributors, and tobacco trade associations. ESTOC says its objective is “to secure the permission to sell smokeless tobacco products that comply with our regulatory framework in Europe and in other parts of the world”.¹

Campaigning Against the EU Ban on Snus

In May 1992 the European Union prohibited certain forms of smokeless tobacco, under Directive 92/41/EEC. The basis for the ban was that “products for oral use will be used above all by young people, thus leading to nicotine addiction” and that “tobacco for oral use contains particularly large quantities of carcinogenic substances; whereas these new products cause cancer of the mouth in particular”.² This ban was maintained under the 2001 EU Tobacco Products Directive, which is currently being reviewed.
ESTOC’s main activity is campaigning to overturn this ban.³

Members

ESTOC members are:⁴

• Assens Tobaksfabrik, a Danish company
• BAT
• Fiedler & Lundgren, a BAT subsidiary
• Imperial Tobacco
• House of Oliver Twist, a Danish company
• JTI
• PMI
• Swedish Match
• Tobacco Manufacturers Association of Denmark
• V2 Tobacco, a Danish smokeless tobacco manufacturer

Management and administration is the responsibility of a six-strong board of directors, of which four represent big cigarette companies. They are:⁵

• Patrik Hildingsson (Swedish Match), Chairman
• Ian Jones (JTI)
• Kristof Doms (PMI)
• Michael Drest Nielsen (House of Oliver Twist)
• Steven Stotesbury (Imperial Tobacco)
• Ulf Bauer (BAT)

ESTOC’s Director General is Inge Delfosse.⁶ Furthermore, ESTOC has several committees: the Scientific Committee, the TPD taskforce (chaired by Cecilia Kindstrand-Isaksson), Media Working Group, and a Tax Working Group.⁷

Different Use of Tobacco, Same Industry Arguments

In its response to an EU consultation on plain packaging and larger health warnings, ESTOC deploys well-worn arguments that are used by the industry across the world.⁸ ESTOC claims:

• “Larger warnings would violate manufacturers’ fundamental, protected rights to expression, information, and property”. (See TobaccoTactics analysis ‘It breaches our intellectual property rights’.)
• “There is no sound evidence that plain packaging would achieve any intended public health objectives”. (See ‘It won’t work’.)
• “Packaging suggestions are far easier to counterfeit and would make enforcement against illicit trade even more difficult”. (See ‘It will lead to increased smuggling’)
• “There would also be significant legal hurdles to introducing this measure” (See ‘We might take you to court’.)

Lobbying Techniques

ESTOC has been registered since 15 December 2009 on the EU Transparency Register, a database set up by the European Parliament and European Commission which holds information on those engaged in activities aimed at influencing EU policy making.⁹
In 2012, ESTOC declared it had spent between €50,000 and €100,000 on lobbying EU institutions2.¹⁰ It registered Inge Delfosse and Radu Colonescu as persons lobbying on ESTOC’s behalf.

Links

ESTOC’s website contains links to articles about oral tobacco, including one from Christopher Snowdon‘s blog, called ‘Which way will ASH go on snus?’

External Resources

ESTOC website: http://estoc.org/