PREPARED FOODSTUFFS > TOBACCO AND MANUFACTURED TOBACCO SUBSTITUTES; PRODUCTS, WHETHER OR NOT CONTAINING NICOTINE, INTENDED FOR INHALATION WITHOUT COMBUSTION; OTHER NICOTINE CONTAINING PRODUCTS INTENDED FOR THE INTAKE OF NICOTINE INTO THE HUMAN BODY > Other manufactured tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes; 'homogenised' or 'reconstituted' tobacco; tobacco extracts and essences > Smoking tobacco, whether or not containing tobacco substitutes in any proportion > Other
1. This chapter does not cover medicinal cigarettes (Chapter 30). 2. Any products classifiable in heading 2404 and any other heading of this chapter are to be classified in heading 2404. 3. For the purposes of heading 2404, the expression 'inhalation without combustion' means inhalation through heated delivery or other means, without combustion. 4. Headings 2401 to 2403 cover tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes. Heading 2404 covers products containing nicotine or tobacco or tobacco substitutes intended for inhalation without combustion, as well as other nicotine-containing products.
1. In this Section the term 'pellets' means products which have been agglomerated either directly by compression or by the addition of a binder in a proportion not exceeding 3 % by weight. 2. The expression 'food preparations' in this Section, unless the context otherwise requires, means preparations classified in headings 1601 to 2106.
Source: European Commission - CN Explanatory Notes (CNEN) and HS legal notes.
T-190/25
15 Apr 2026A.K. and „Tabako lapai“ UAB v Lietuvos Respublikos generalinė prokuratūra
On those grounds, LE TRIBUNAL (Second Chamber, sitting with five Judges) hereby rules: 1. Article 5(1)(a) of Council Directive 2011/64/EU of 21 June 2011 on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco must be interpreted as meaning that in order to classify a product as ‘smoking tobacco’, within the meaning of that provision, it is not necessary to rely on the tariff headings of the Combined Nomenclature set out in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff, as amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2000 of 31 January 2000, in the version resulting from Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1925 of 12 October 2017, and on the Explanatory Notes to the Combined Nomenclature of the European Union. 2. The examination of the aspects to which the third question relates has disclosed no factor of such a kind as to affect the validity of Directive 2011/64, Implementing Regulation 2017/1925 and the Explanatory Notes to the CN in view of the general principle of legal certainty and the principle that offences and penalties must be defined by law, enshrined by Article 49(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Półtorak Hesse Steinfatt Petrlík Dimitrakopoulos Delivered in open court in Luxembourg on 15 April 2026. [Signatures] * Language of the case: Lithuanian.
C-674/19
16 Sept 2020UAB „Skonis ir kvapas“ v Muitinės departamentas prie Lietuvos Respublikos finansų ministerijos
On those grounds, the Court (Eighth Chamber) hereby rules: Articles 2 and 5 of Council Directive 2011/64/EU of 21 June 2011 on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco must be construed as meaning that water-pipe tobacco, consisting of tobacco, which makes up 24% thereof, and other substances such as sugar syrup, glycerine, flavourings and preservative, must be regarded as a product ‘consisting … in part of substances other than tobacco’ and as ‘smoking tobacco’ within the meaning of those provisions and must therefore be regarded, in its entirety and irrespective of the substances other than tobacco contained therein, as smoking tobacco subject to the excise duty on tobacco. [Signatures] ( *1 ) Language of the case: Lithuanian.