SICPA SA
SICPA
Market leader in high security inks and leading provider of secured authentication, identification, traceability and supply chain solutions, SICPA is a long-trusted partner to governments, central banks, high security printers and industries.
ID: 505456818295-32
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Astrid Van Mierlo (Head of Unit Taxation and Customs Union)
24 Apr 2025 · Marking solutions for product authentication, identification and traceability
Meeting with Pierre Delsaux (Director-General Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority)
11 Jul 2022 · Meeting with Arnaud Bernaert to discuss contribution to HERA
Response to Implementing act under Article 16(2) of the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU
2 Oct 2017
SICPA is grateful for the opportunity to provide comments regarding the draft secondary legislation relating to the establishment and operation of the systems of traceability and security features for tobacco products as provided for under Articles 15 and 16 of Directive 2014/40/EU (the “EU proposed Legislation”), which were published on the European Commission website on 4 September 2017 for public feedback before 2 October 2017.
The hereby commented draft Commission implementing Regulation must be analyzed together with the whole set of legislation governing tobacco track and trace in the European Union. This set of legislation not only comprises the EU proposed Legislation, it also comprises the World Health Organization Protocol to eliminate the illicit trade in tobacco products (the “Protocol”).
The Protocol’s ratification by the European Union was registered on 24 June 2016. Spain, Portugal, Austria, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia and Germany have also ratified it while the majority of Member States have signed the Protocol, making the letter and spirit of its provision mandatory, as well as to any derived legislation adopted in the field of tobacco track and trace and systems to fight against illicit trade in tobacco products .
The European legislators also unambiguously decided to have the Protocol requirements fully abided by, particularly the independence from the tobacco industry, with two votes: on 9 March 2016, the European Parliament opposed the renewal of the Cooperation Agreement with Philip Morris International; and on 7 June 2016 it voted in favor of the Protocol ratification, as well as the EU Council with decision 2013/745/EU notably.
Article 216-2 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union reads:
“Agreements concluded by the Union are binding upon the institutions of the Union and on its Member States.”
Nevertheless, the process of derived legislation drafting has not allowed for the letter and spirit of the Protocol to be abided by. The tracking and tracing system is not fully in Member States’ control, contrary to article 8-2 thereof, while some core tasks are to be performed to the tobacco industry, contrary to article 8-12 thereof which limits the interactions of Parties and competent authorities with the tobacco industry and those representing its interests in the participation to the tracking and tracing regime to the extent strictly necessary.
On the contrary, the EU proposed Legislation entrusts the tobacco industry with core tasks which should be under Member States’ control independently from the tobacco industry.
Meanwhile, article 8-2 of the Protocol provides that each party shall take account of available best practice in the establishment of the tracking and tracing system. The WHO lists some of these best practices but none of them seems to have been considered by Directorate General for health and food safety (hereinafter “DG SANTE”) as an efficient example of tracking and tracing regime to tackle illicit tobacco trade in the EU proposed Legislation.
• The mandatory provision of only a single security feature by an independent third party, regardless of the definition of independence, is not enough to ensure the robustness of the security feature. This means that at least four of the security features can be provided by entities linked to the tobacco industry, which seems incompliant with the Protocol.
• The definition of covert in article 2(d) is not aligned with international best practices (for instance ISO standard 12931:2012 titled “Performance criteria for authentication solutions used to combat counterfeiting of material goods);
Lastly, as regards the independence definitions that apply to the EU proposed Legislation, SICPA believes that its wording does not ensure full control of the system by Member States.
Therefore, SICPA stands ready to provide all the support to DG SANTE so as to align the EU proposed Legislation with the Protocol.
Read full responseResponse to Implementing act under Article 15(11) of the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU
2 Oct 2017
SICPA is grateful for the opportunity to provide comments regarding the draft secondary legislation relating to the establishment and operation of the systems of traceability and security features for tobacco products, as provided for under Articles 15 and 16 of Directive 2014/40/EU (the “EU proposed Legislation”), published on the European Commission website on 4 September 2017 for public feedback before 2 October 2017.
The hereby draft Commission delegated Regulation must be analysed together with the whole set of legislation governing tobacco track and trace in the European Union. This legislation not only comprises the EU proposed Legislation, it also and essentially comprises the World Health Organization Protocol to eliminate the illicit trade in tobacco products (the “Protocol”).
The Protocol’s ratification by the European Union was registered on 24 June 2016. Spain, Portugal, Austria, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia and Germany have also ratified it while the majority of Member States have signed the Protocol, making the letter and spirit of its provision mandatory to all, as well as to any derived legislation adopted in the field of tobacco track and trace and systems to fight against illicit trade in tobacco products .
The European legislators also unambiguously decided to have the Protocol requirements fully abided by, particularly the independence from the tobacco industry, with two votes: on 9 March 2016, the European Parliament opposed the renewal of the Cooperation Agreement with Philip Morris International; and on 7 June 2016 it voted in favor of the Protocol ratification, as well as the EU Council with decision 2013/745/EU notably.
Article 216-2 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union reads:
“Agreements concluded by the Union are binding upon the institutions of the Union and on its Member States.”
Nevertheless, the process of derived legislation drafting has not allowed for the letter and spirit of the Protocol to be abided by. The tracking and tracing system is not fully in Member States’ control, contrary to article 8-2 thereof, while some core tasks are to be performed to the tobacco industry, contrary to article 8-12 thereof which limits the interactions of Parties and competent authorities with the tobacco industry and those representing its interests in the participation to the tracking and tracing regime to the extent strictly necessary.
As regards the technical standards for traceability systems, SICPA particularly questions:
• Article 2(5): the definition of anti-tampering device does not define minimum requirements and measures to guarantee the integrity of the device;
• Article 6 and 7: the application and verification of the UIDs’ readability by the tobacco industry is not compliant with the Protocol’s independence requirements;
• Under article 6(2): importers are not allowed to delegate the marking of UIDs to foreign manufacturers, so that importers would have to first disassemble shipments in order to start marking and aggregating the unit level;
• Under art 9(5): while it seems that the UIDs is allowed to be delivered in digital or physical form, there is no specification as to the addition and integration of the time stamp suffixed to the UID in both machine and human readable form, by the manufacturers of tobacco products in such process, making it unworkable in practice;
• Art 20(4): there is no definition of offline verification devices which are to be used for offline verification procedures;
• Art 26 & 27: the secondary repository is chosen on a list of primary repositories remunerated and selected by the tobacco industry.
Therefore, SICPA stands ready to provide all the necessary support to DG SANTE so as to align the EU proposed Legislation with the Protocol requirements and ensure the first regional system to tackle illicit trade in tobacco products implemented in the European Union fully complies with international law.
Read full responseResponse to Delegated act under Article 15(12) of the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU
2 Oct 2017
Response to the Commission implementing Regulation on technical standards on the key elements of data storage contracts to be concluded as part of a traceability system for tobacco products
SICPA is grateful for the opportunity to provide comments regarding the draft secondary legislation relating to the establishment and operation of the systems of traceability and security features for tobacco products, as provided for under Articles 15 and 16 of Directive 2014/40/EU (the “EU proposed Legislation”), published on the European Commission website on 4 September 2017 for public feedback before 2 October 2017.
The hereby draft Commission delegated Regulation must be analysed together with the whole set of legislation governing tobacco track and trace in the European Union. This legislation not only comprises the EU proposed Legislation, it also and essentially comprises the World Health Organization Protocol to eliminate the illicit trade in tobacco products (the “Protocol”).
The Protocol’s ratification by the European Union was registered on 24 June 2016. Spain, Portugal, Austria, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia and Germany have also ratified it while the majority of Member States have signed the Protocol, making the letter and spirit of its provision mandatory to all, as well as to any derived legislation adopted in the field of tobacco track and trace and systems to fight against illicit trade in tobacco products .
The European legislators also unambiguously decided to have the Protocol requirements fully abided by, particularly the independence from the tobacco industry, with two votes: on 9 March 2016, the European Parliament opposed the renewal of the Cooperation Agreement with Philip Morris International; and on 7 June 2016 it voted in favor of the Protocol ratification, as well as the EU Council with decision 2013/745/EU notably.
Article 216-2 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union reads:
“Agreements concluded by the Union are binding upon the institutions of the Union and on its Member States.”
Nevertheless, the process of derived legislation drafting has not allowed for the letter and spirit of the Protocol to be abided by. The tracking and tracing system is not fully in Member States’ control, contrary to article 8-2 thereof, while some core tasks are to be performed to the tobacco industry, contrary to article 8-12 thereof which limits the interactions of Parties and competent authorities with the tobacco industry and those representing its interests in the participation to the tracking and tracing regime to the extent strictly necessary.
On the contrary, the EU proposed Legislation entrusts the tobacco industry with core tasks which should be under Member States’ control independently from the tobacco industry.
Meanwhile, article 8-2 of the Protocol provides that each party shall take account of available best practice in the establishment of the tracking and tracing system. The World Health Organization lists some of these best practices but none of them seems to have been considered by Directorate General for health and food safety (hereinafter “DG SANTE”) as an efficient example of tracking and tracing regime to tackle illicit tobacco trade in the EU proposed Legislation.
Lastly, as regards the independence definitions that apply to the EU proposed Legislation, SICPA believes that its wording does not ensure full control of the system by Member States and their competent authorities as well as independence from the tobacco industry as per the Protocol.
Therefore, SICPA stands ready to provide all the necessary support to DG SANTE so as to align the EU proposed Legislation with the Protocol requirements and ensure the first regional system to tackle illicit trade in tobacco products implemented in the European Union fully complies with international law and best practices.
Read full responseMeeting with Dominique Ristori (Director-General Energy) and SALESAS TRES CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS
16 Dec 2016 · Tracking and tracing technique