Prepare for the new Tobacco Law May 2024
The upcoming legislation, effective May 20, 2024, impacts all stakeholders in the tobacco industry, including manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers.
According to the new law, all tobacco products, including snus, must be equipped with both traceability and security markings to be sold on the Swedish market.
What applies to snus manufacturers and importers?
Under the new law, tobacco product manufacturers and importers must ensure that each product is equipped with correct traceability and security markings before entering the market. These markings must include both an optically machine-readable code and a human-readable code. It is their responsibility to ensure that the products meet all legal requirements.
What about wholesalers and snus distributors?
Wholesalers and distributors are required to mark products with traceability markings at an aggregated level to facilitate registration of inbound and outbound deliveries. These markings are intended to enable continuous tracking of goods throughout the supply chain to the retail level. To comply with the law, wholesalers and distributors must ensure that the aggregated units they create are correctly labeled with traceability markings.
Unique identity marking
To trace tobacco products, they must have a unique identity marking that enables identification, tracking, and tracing of goods throughout the supply chain to the retail level. Products sold in Sweden must bear markings issued by a Swedish ID issuer. The marking consists of four parts and is 26 characters long:
- ID issuer’s code
- Unique serial number
- Product code
- Manufacturing location
- Timestamp
Security marking with authenticity details
In addition to traceability markings, all individual and aggregated packages must be equipped with security markings affixed in a manner that prevents reuse and enables identification and verification of the authenticity of each tobacco product. This includes at least five authenticity features, such as guilloche patterns, optically variable ink, microprint, fluorescent ink, and anti-Stokes ink.
It’s important to comply with the new Tobacco Law
Only tobacco products equipped with both traceability and security markings may be sold by retailers. Products lacking these markings are not allowed to be sold.
It’s crucial for all stakeholders in the tobacco industry to be aware of and comply with the new legislation to avoid legal consequences and ensure proper handling of their products. Violations of these rules can result in penalties and fines from the supervisory authority.
We at Logimark are happy to assist in developing labels that comply with the new legislation. We’re also experts in designing highly efficient labeling machines for snus cans. Contact us today!
Learn more about the regulations here: Folkhälsomyndigheten