Fighting Illicit Trade

The “Recommendations for EU Regulation 2018/574 implementation while minimising retail supply chain disruption” provides suggestions to MOs on how to minimise retail supply chain issues while correctly implementing the recent EU tobacco track and trace rules to fight against illicit trade.

The document includes MOs recommendations for a consistent GS1 standards-based implementation of the new EU regulation taking into account:

  • B2B trade (e.g., distributor to wholesaler or retailer, wholesaler to trading partner, retail DC to stores) where GS1-based, aggregate level identification is used
  • B2B trade where GS1-based, aggregate level identification is unavailable (e.g., broken cartons to restock vending machines, large ‘make your own’ containers, damaged cartons)
  • Barcode implementation
  • How to avoid POS disruption of non-GS1 identifiers/barcodes on unit packs
  • Human-Readable Text
  • Data Sharing practices

To know more about how GS1 Standards can help to fight illicit trade, click here.


Related Publications

Recommendations for EU Regulation 2018/574 implementation while minimising retail supply chain disruption
EU Implementing Regulation 2018/574 establishes a track and trace and data sharing system for tobacco products, in order to fight the illicit trade. The first implementation deadline was the 20th of May 2019 for cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco.