Poland

Sponsorship: financial or material consideration for personal or institutional activities related to exhibition of names of products and commercial companies, and their graphic symbols.

The definition of “sponsorship” in the Protection of Health Act does not align with the definition of “tobacco sponsorship” in the FCTC. First, the definition only applies to “activities” and may not cover all types of events. Second, under the Act’s definition a financial contribution or other support is only “sponsorship” if it involves the display of the names of tobacco products or companies or their symbols/logos. Thus, tobacco industry financial contributions that do not require display of tobacco company or product logos are not considered “sponsorship” under this definition and therefore escape the ban on sponsorship.

To align with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines, the law should contain a definition of “tobacco sponsorship” in accordance with the definition provided in FCTC Art. 1.

Tobacco products advertisement: distribution of announcements, images of tobacco brands or symbols related to them, also: names and graphic symbols of tobacco product manufacturers, which are no different than the names and graphic symbols of the tobacco products, and are used to popularize the tobacco product brands; information exchanged between factories and institutions manufacturing, distributing and selling tobacco products, and used for commercial purpose, is not considered marketing.

Promotion of tobacco products: public distribution of tobacco products or tobacco accessories, tasting events, awarding bonuses for tobacco products purchases, 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 – with no exceptions for any means of reaching to a customer.

The Protection of Health Act contains a definition of “tobacco products advertisement” and a definition of “promotion of tobacco products.” The definition of “tobacco products advertisement” covers traditional tobacco advertising. The definition of “promotion of tobacco products” lists types of tobacco promotion activities, and therefore may inadvertently fail to cover all tobacco promotion activities. However, taken together, the definitions in the Act capture the intent of the definition of “tobacco advertising and promotion” in the FCTC and enable a comprehensive ban.

The law aligns with FCTC Art. 13 and the FCTC Art. 13 Guidelines. However, to ensure that the ban on tobacco advertising and promotion is broad in scope, the drafters of the law may wish to consider providing a definition of “tobacco advertising and promotion” in accordance with the definition provided in FCTC Art. 1.

Tobacco products: any products made of tobacco, like cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco, mahorka tobacco, and other containing tobacco or its components, excluding medicinal products containing tobacco.

Smokeless tobacco products: tobacco products for sniffing (snuff), sucking, chewing or other way of introducing tobacco to the body, excluding medicinal products containing tobacco.

Article 2 of the Protection of Health Act provides a definition of “tobacco products” (which applies to smoked tobacco products) and “smokeless tobacco products.” Together, these definitions align with and are broader than the definition of “tobacco product” contained in the FCTC in that they do not require tobacco leaf as a component. Specifically, the definition of “tobacco products” in the Act includes products that contain tobacco “or its components.” Thus, the Act’s definition includes products such as e-cigarettes (assuming the nicotine in the e-cigarettes on the market is extracted from tobacco).