Slim cigarettes are no longer available in Slovenian stores after health inspectors found the packaging was not in line with the relevant EU directive. Smokers are upset and confused, writes the newspaper Delo.

The directive states that the health warning labels must be at least twenty millimetres wide, which is a requirement that slim cigarette packs did not meet.

The slim cigarettes were taken off the shelves by market inspectors but also by distributors.

Before they can be reintroduced to the market, tobacco companies will have to adjust the labels and the manufacturing process. It is uncertain when this will happen, Delo writes.

Slovenians have already bought up slim cigarettes at the border with Croatia to compensate for the shortage, which the newspaper feels might lead to grey market trading.

Market inspectors first reviewed the labelling and packaging of tobacco products in autumn of 2022. They confiscated more than 2,500 cigarette packs and fined twelve legal persons. Fines for such offences range from €4,000 to €33,000 for legal persons and from €800 to €2,000 for the person in charge.

In accordance with the annual plan of the inspectorate, the review of labelling and packaging of tobacco products was performed again in the last week of May, the inspectorate said, offering no details on how many products were confiscated or fines issued.

The EU Tobacco Products Directive entered into force in 2014 with the transposition deadline in 2016. The relevant Slovenian act entered into force in 2017 with all provisions fully adopted by 2020.