EU Court rules cigarette emissions tests must be freely accessible to all

Brussels – The European Union Court of Justice has ruled that a foundation or any interested party must be able to verify whether cigarettes comply with the European emission limits (for tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide, using the ISO method) by applying the official methods set out in the ISO standards. Access to these standards must be free, effective, unrestricted, and non-discriminatory. However, the Court has also clarified an important point: if these standards are effectively accessible, alternative methods cannot be used to challenge the conformity of cigarettes, even if the ISO standards have not been published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

In other words, the technical rules set out in ISO standards remain binding, provided they are accessible to anyone wishing to consult them. Furthermore, when the European Union mandates the use of international standards to protect public interests, such as health, it is for the European Union to bear the costs associated with providing free access to the official and authentic versions of those standards, including costs related to intellectual property rights.

The case originated in the Netherlands. In 2018, a foundation working to prevent smoking among young people asked the relevant national authority, the Netherlands Authority for the Food and Consumer Products, to verify that filter cigarettes complied with the limits set by a European directive. However, the authority rejected the request.

The matter was therefore brought before the Dutch judges. The Rotterdam court, following an initial ruling by the Court of Justice in 2022, had held that the ISO standards could not be invoked against the foundation and that the prescribed measurement method was inadequate, as it did not take into account the fact that, in actual use, the smoker may block part of the filter, altering emission levels.

The case then returned to the Court of Justice, which issued a more balanced ruling: on the one hand, it confirmed the foundation’s right to monitor compliance with the rules; on the other, it clarified that, while the ISO standards are accessible, they remain the mandatory reference and cannot be replaced by other measurement methods to achieve the withdrawal of cigarettes from the market.