The regulation of tobacco products, tobacco accessories and consumption devices is the product-side face of the Law of Georgia on Tobacco Control: what counts as a tobacco product, where and how it may be sold and displayed, what its packaging and medical warnings must look like, and how consumers are protected from falsified products. This page describes precisely that product-and-trade dimension, and separately addresses export and import rules.
Terminology: what counts as a tobacco product
A tobacco product is a product containing tobacco or its elements — except a medicinal product containing nicotine — intended for smoking, chewing, sucking or inhaling. The law includes in this category filtered and unfiltered cigarettes, papirosy, cigars and cigarillos, pipe tobacco, hookah tobacco, twisting tobacco, chewing, sucking and inhaling tobacco, as well as the nicotine-containing material, cartridge or capsule of an electronic cigarette.
Separate definitions exist for the new tobacco product — one that does not fall into any other category; the nicotine-containing product without tobacco; heated tobacco, intended for consumption by heating only; and the tobacco accessory or consumption device — from mouthpiece to pipe, from electronic cigarette to any kind of cigar case. The tobacco industry means the production, import, sale, export, re-export or transit of tobacco products; sale means the transfer of a ready product to another person for sale or other forms of distribution for commercial gain.
Restrictions on sale and display
It is prohibited to involve persons under 18 in the tobacco industry and to sell products, accessories or devices to persons under 18. Sale is prohibited in educational and upbringing institutions and within a 50-meter radius of their adjacent territories, as well as around early and preschool education institutions within the same radius.
The law also prohibits sale and placement:
- in public institutions and in medical, sports and cultural institutions and their territories;
- in a trade object unless the product is placed separately from food or other products — separated placement means an opaque shelf, partition or a separate section;
- as single sticks or in a package containing fewer or more than 20 cigarettes;
- without packaging, through electronic or mechanical machines, via the internet or by mail, free of charge or below cost;
- on a shop window visible from outside or inside the object, and by direct delivery to persons seated in a vehicle.
Supply of pipe tobacco, twisting tobacco and tobacco raw material is permissible only in primary packages of 50 or 100 grams net mass. At points of sale, an approved medical warning must be placed on paper of at least A4 format, together with a contact telephone for consultation and information on the ban on sales to persons under 18. If a seller cannot confirm the buyer's age of majority, the seller is obliged to request an identity document.
The ban on promotion
It is prohibited to distribute or raffle products, accessories or devices through lotteries and gambling; to transfer them as gifts or offer tasting; to run loyalty schemes and distribute coupons; to use network marketing, direct mail and telemarketing; to motivate retailers to sell more; to sell toys or sweets that imitate a tobacco product; and to engage in brand stretching — associating a tobacco brand with another product or service.
Packaging and medical warnings
No element of the name or packaging or label of a tobacco product intended for sale in Georgia may contain false, misleading or impression-creating information about the product's properties, its harm or the emitted substances. Words creating the impression that a product is less harmful may not be used — including terms such as "light", "soft" or "low content".
The government approves 3 samples of the main medical warning, 9 samples of the additional warning and 9 samples of the corresponding pictogram. Over the course of a year, the manufacturer or importer must use every main warning evenly and select 3 additional warnings with their pictograms. The warning must be placed on the front and back large sides of the package, written clearly in the state language, in bold type — black letters on a white background or white on black — with a frame line 1 mm thick, occupying not less than 65 percent of the total area of the side.
The use of a brand, logo or trademark on the packaging of manufactured products is prohibited — only the traceability mark remains; inscriptions must be in a uniform typeface and indicate the manufacturing country. Whether packaging colors, sizes, shapes, materials and opening types are allowed or banned is determined by government normative acts. The declared purpose of these measures is to reduce the attractiveness of tobacco products, increase the visibility and effectiveness of warnings, and reduce the possibility of misleading consumers.
Consumer protection from falsified products
Falsification means the non-conformity of a tobacco product's composition, characteristics, assortment and origin with established requirements or with the data indicated in accompanying documents and on the label. The production, storage, transportation and sale of falsified tobacco is prohibited. To protect consumers, the government establishes the list of markings on packaging concerning the tobacco manufacturer.
Export and import
The export and import of tobacco are carried out in accordance with Georgian legislation. The norms established by the law — apart from the restriction of smoking — do not apply to quantities of tobacco products brought in by a natural person by air transport within 1 calendar day, and in other cases within 30 calendar days, in the quantities determined by the Customs Code.
For importers and trade organizers, the decisive factor is simultaneous compliance with several requirements — age restrictions, separated placement, packaging rules and the rotation of warnings. In a lawyer's hands, this set of requirements turns into a mandatory compliance checklist: a thoroughly verified process gives the assurance that the product will reach the market lawfully.