Case C-665/24, Staatssecretaris Jeugd, Preventie en Sport (Electronic cigarettes): Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 11 December 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven – Netherlands) – Staatssecretaris Jeugd, Preventie en Sport v Diamond Flavours BV, UEG Holland BV (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Directive 2014/40/EU – Article 2(40) – Concept of placing on the market – Article 23(2) and (3) – Checks on the implementation of Directive 2014/40 – Objective of ensuring a high level of health protection – Approximation of laws – Manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products – Supply of refill containers for electronic cigarettes displaying an incorrect indication of the nicotine content on their packaging by a distributor of tobacco and related products to a retail outlet – Fine imposed on the distributor – Principle nulla poena sine culpa – Proportionality of the fine)
Date: 2025-12-11
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: approximation of laws, consumer information, distributor, fine, health risk, labelling, market approval, principle of proportionality, smoking, tobacco industry








C_202600614EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2026/614


9.2.2026






Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 11 December 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven – Netherlands) – Staatssecretaris Jeugd, Preventie en Sport v Diamond Flavours BV, UEG Holland BV


(Case C-665/24,
                (1)
Staatssecretaris Jeugd, Preventie en Sport (Electronic cigarettes))

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Directive 2014/40/EU - Article 2(40) - Concept of ‘placing on the market’ - Article 23(2) and (3) - Checks on the implementation of Directive 2014/40 - Objective of ensuring a high level of health protection - Approximation of laws - Manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products - Supply of refill containers for electronic cigarettes displaying an incorrect indication of the nicotine content on their packaging by a distributor of tobacco and related products to a retail outlet - Fine imposed on the distributor - Principle 
nulla poena sine culpa
 - Proportionality of the fine)
(C/2026/614)
Language of the case: Dutch

Referring court

College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Staatssecretaris Jeugd, Preventie en Sport

Defendants: Diamond Flavours BV, UEG Holland BV

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 23(2) of Directive 2014/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products and repealing Directive 2001/37/EC, read in conjunction with Article 2(40) and Article 20(4)(b)(i) of that directive,
must be interpreted as meaning that the obligation on Member States to ensure that refill containers for electronic cigarettes the unit packets of which do not include an accurate indication of their nicotine content are not placed on the market is not limited to the stage at which those refill containers are supplied by a retail outlet to the consumer.










2.


Article 23(3) of Directive 2014/40
must be interpreted as precluding national legislation which provides for an administrative fine of a criminal nature to penalise an economic operator which has placed on the market refill containers whose unit packets do not include correct information on their nicotine content, even though that information corresponds to that in the notification made within the meaning of Article 20(2) of the directive by the ‘manufacturer’ or ‘importer’ from which that operator acquired those containers, where the amount of that fine cannot be adjusted according to the seriousness of the breach, taking into account the individual circumstances of the case.






(1)  OJ C, C/2025/1070.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2026/614/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)