Scientific-technical support activities to DG TAXUD-C-2 on the option to include e-cigarettes within the scope of excisable goods for the impact assessment on a possible revision of Directive 2011/64/EU : final report

Electronic-cigarettes are electrical devices that produce an inhalable aerosol from a special liquid. The liquids (e-liquids) may consist of a solution of nicotine and flavourings in an appropriate solvent. Nicotine-free products are available as well. A large range of differently flavoured e-liquids is offered to the consumer. The market of electronic cigarettes and corresponding e-liquids experienced in recent years enormous growth. Some EU Member States reacted on this development and introduced excise duties on e-liquids. The partial introduction of excise duties in the common market and the lack of harmonisation of their magnitude might cause distortions of the market. For that reason, the Directorate-General Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) commissioned a study on the identification and characterisation of e-liquids, which should be based on substances naturally occurring in tobacco. The Administrative Arrangement (AA) with DG TAXUD foresaw the determination of the concentrations of nicotine and related tobacco alkaloids in e-liquid samples, and to evaluate the agreement of the measured concentrations with concentrations indicated on the product label. Additionally, the possibility of identifying e-liquids containing tobacco derived flavours had to be studied with the aim to use this information for product classification. More than 200 e-liquid samples acquired in different countries were analysed for their tobacco alkaloid contents by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. A high proportion of the investigated products contained nicotine at a level significantly different from the indicated concentration. Mostly lower concentrations were found. However, significant amounts of nicotine were determined in some products declared as "zeronicotine". Volatile profiles of 108 e-liquid samples were measured by gas chromatography hyphenated to high-resolution quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) mass spectrometry. The data obtained from the analysis of was investigated with multivariate statistical methods for possibilities of discriminating tobacco- and non-tobacco flavoured e-liquids. The developed statistical models allowed identification of tobacco derived products with high probability. If a harmonized taxation of e-liquids were to be proposed, the following considerations should be taken into account in designing the tax base: The declared nicotine content often does not match with the measured nicotine content; Moreover, in products declared as ''zero-nicotine'' significant amounts of nicotine can be found; Chemical analysis allows distinguishing tobacco and non-tobacco e-liquids with high probability.