Poland

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising or promotion of “tobacco products, tobacco accessories or imitations of tobacco products and accessories, and symbols related to tobacco use” on TV and radio.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to tobacco advertising and promotion on domestic TV and radio.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising or promotion of “tobacco products, tobacco accessories or imitations of tobacco products and accessories, and symbols related to tobacco use” in “publications for children and youngsters” and “press.” This is interpreted as including all domestic newspapers and magazines.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to tobacco advertising and promotion in domestic newspaper and magazines.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising or promotion of “tobacco products, tobacco accessories or imitations of tobacco products and accessories, and symbols related to tobacco use” in “posters, large format [billboards] included.” This is interpreted as prohibiting tobacco advertising and promotion in all domestic print media, such as pamphlets, leaflets, flyers, posters, and signs.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to tobacco advertising and promotion in domestic print media.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising or promotion of “tobacco products, tobacco accessories or imitations of tobacco products and accessories, and symbols related to tobacco use” on TV and radio. However, the law does not explicitly address international or cross-border TV and radio. Therefore, the regulatory status “Uncertain” is given.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines, the law should explicitly prohibit tobacco advertising and promotion on international or cross-border TV and radio.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising or promotion of “tobacco products, tobacco accessories or imitations of tobacco products and accessories, and symbols related to tobacco use” in “publications for children and youngsters” and other “press.” This is interpreted as covering all domestic newspapers and magazines. However, the law does not explicitly address international or cross-border newspapers and magazines. Therefore, the regulatory status “Uncertain” is given.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines, the law should explicitly prohibit tobacco advertising and promotion in international newspapers and magazines.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising or promotion of “tobacco products, tobacco accessories or imitations of tobacco products and accessories, and symbols related to tobacco use” in “information technology resources,” which includes all internet communications.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to tobacco advertising and promotion via internet communications.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising or promotion of “tobacco products, tobacco accessories or imitations of tobacco products and accessories, and symbols related to tobacco use” on “posters, large format included.” This is interpreted as including billboards and other outdoor advertising.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to tobacco advertising and promotion via outdoor advertising.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of “tobacco products, tobacco accessories or imitations of tobacco products and accessories, and symbols related to tobacco use.” The definition of “tobacco products advertisement” includes “distribution of announcements, images of tobacco brands or symbols related to them, also: names and graphic symbols of tobacco product manufacturers . . . used to popularize the tobacco product brands.” The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” includes “public distribution of tobacco products . . . [and] other forms of encouragement to purchase or use tobacco products – with no exceptions for any means of reaching to a customer.” Taken together, the ban on tobacco advertising and promotion is interpreted to include point of sale advertising and promotion. In addition, the Act specifically prohibits displaying objects imitating tobacco product packaging at points of sale.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to point of sale tobacco advertising and promotion.

Article 6(5) of the Protection of Health Act prohibits a “self-service system” of retail sale of tobacco products, except at duty free stores. This is interpreted as prohibiting the placement of tobacco products within direct reach of consumers, but not necessarily prohibiting product display. There are no other restrictions on point of sale product display.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines paras. 12- 13, the law should provide for “a total ban on any display and on the visibility of tobacco products at points of sale, including fixed retail outlets and street vendors. Only the textual listing of products and their prices, without any promotional elements, would be allowed.”

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” includes “public distribution of tobacco products . . . [and] other forms of encouragement to purchase or use tobacco products – with no exceptions for any means of reaching to a customer.” Given this definition, the ban on advertising and promoting tobacco products is interpreted as banning tobacco advertising through conventional mail.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to tobacco advertising and promotion via conventional mail.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” includes “public distribution of tobacco products . . . [and] other forms of encouragement to purchase or use tobacco products – with no exceptions for any means of reaching to a customer.” Given this definition, the ban on advertising and promoting tobacco products is interpreted as banning promotion of tobacco products by telephone and cellular (mobile) phone.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to tobacco advertising and promotion via telephone and cellular (mobile) phone.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “tobacco advertising” includes “the distribution of . . . images of tobacco brands or symbols related to them, also: names and graphic symbols of tobacco product manufacturers . . . used to popularize the tobacco product brands.” Given this definition, the ban on tobacco advertising and promotion is interpreted as banning brand marking.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to brand marking.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” includes “public distribution of tobacco products . . . [and] tasting events.” Given this definition, the ban on promoting tobacco products is interpreted as banning the free distribution of tobacco products.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines and meets FCTC Art. 16 with respect to free distribution of tobacco products.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” includes “offering tobacco products for lower prices than these on a single package of the product, organization of contests related to purchase of tobacco products or accessories, or other forms of encouragement to purchase or use tobacco products.” Given this definition, the ban on promoting tobacco products is interpreted as banning all promotion with a tobacco product purchase.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to promotion with a tobacco product purchase.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” includes “organization of contests related to purchase of tobacco products or accessories, or other forms of encouragement to purchase or use tobacco products.” Given the last catch-all phrase of this definition, the ban on promoting tobacco products is interpreted as banning competitions associated with tobacco products, whether requiring the purchase of a tobacco product or not.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to competitions associated with tobacco products.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” includes any “other forms of encouragement to purchase or use tobacco products – with no exceptions for any means of reaching to a customer.” Given this definition, the ban on promoting tobacco products is interpreted as banning promotion by direct person-to-person targeting of individuals.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to tobacco advertising and promotion via direct person-to-person targeting of individuals.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “tobacco advertising” includes “the distribution of . . . images of tobacco brands or symbols related to them, also: names and graphic symbols of tobacco product manufacturers . . . used to popularize the tobacco product brands.” Given this definition, the ban on tobacco advertising and promotion is interpreted as banning brand stretching.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to brand stretching.

The law does not address reverse brand stretching. Therefore, the law is interpreted as allowing reverse brand stretching.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines, the law should explicitly prohibit reverse brand stretching.

The law does not specifically address the manufacture or sale of toys that resemble tobacco products. However, Art. 8 of the Protection of Health Act prohibits the advertising and promotion of “products imitating tobacco products.” Therefore, although toys resembling tobacco products may be manufactured and sold, they may not be advertised or promoted. Therefore, the regulatory status “Some Restrictions” is given.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines, the law should prohibit the manufacture and sale of toys that resemble tobacco products.

The law does not specifically address the manufacture or sale of candy that resembles tobacco products. However, Art. 8 of the Protection of Health Act prohibits the advertising and promotion of “products imitating tobacco products.” Therefore, although candy resembling tobacco products may be manufactured and sold, it may not be advertised or promoted. Therefore, the regulatory status “Some Restrictions” is given.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines, the law should prohibit the manufacture and sale of candy that resembles tobacco products.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” includes any “other forms of encouragement to purchase or use tobacco products – with no exceptions for any means of reaching to a customer.” It could be argued that retailer incentive programs fall under the category of “forms of encouragement to purchase or use tobacco products” and should therefore be prohibited. However, because the law does not explicitly address retailer incentive programs, the regulatory status “Uncertain” is given.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines, the law should explicitly prohibit retailer incentive programs. In addition, to clarify the scope of the ban on tobacco advertising and promotion, and aid in implementation and enforcement, the law should contain a definition of “tobacco advertising and promotion” in accordance with the definition provided in the FCTC.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits advertising and promotion of tobacco products, including in TV and cinema. The definition of “tobacco advertising” includes “the distribution of . . . images of tobacco brands or symbols related to them, also: names and graphic symbols of tobacco product manufacturers . . . used to popularize the tobacco product brands.” Given this definition, the ban on tobacco advertising and promotion is interpreted as prohibiting paid placement of tobacco products in TV, film, and other media.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to paid placement of tobacco products.

The law does not specifically address unpaid depiction of tobacco use or tobacco products in media. Therefore, the law is interpreted as allowing unpaid depiction of tobacco use or tobacco products.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines, the law should specifically address unpaid placement in accordance with FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines paras. 29-32.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits tobacco sponsorship of “sport, cultural, educational, health, social, and political activities.” However, the law is silent as to sponsorship of groups and/or individuals as well as to so-called “corporate social responsibility” campaigns. Therefore, the regulatory status “Some Restrictions” is given.

The law does not align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to financial contributions. To align, the law should prohibit all contributions that have the aim, effect, or likely effect of promoting tobacco products or tobacco use directly or indirectly and define "tobacco sponsorship" in accordance with FCTC Art. 1.

The Protection of Health Act prohibits tobacco sponsorship of “sport, cultural, educational, health, social, and political activities,” so there can be no publicity of such sponsorship. The law does not appear to prohibit contributions to groups or individuals, nor does it explicitly allow or prohibit publicity of such contributions. However, the law generally prohibits all tobacco advertising, which would include publicity of tobacco sponsorship of individuals or organizations.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to publicity of tobacco sponsorship. For better clarity, the law should prohibit all tobacco sponsorship and publicity thereof and define "tobacco sponsorship" in accordance with FCTC Art. 1.

Article 8 of the Protection of Health Act provides a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and promotion, which would include all promotion by means that are false, misleading, deceptive, or likely to create an erroneous impression. In addition, Art. 7b of the Protection of Health Act prohibits placement on tobacco product packages of “names, trademarks, or symbols and other signs suggesting that this product is less harmful than others.”

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines with respect to promotion by any means that are false, misleading, deceptive, or likely to create an erroneous impression.