Supermarkets will once again be permitted to sell tobacco products from next year as Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) has accepted the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the tobacco ban.
Since April last year, shops larger than 400 m² have been prohibited from selling cigarettes, cigars, filters or cigarette paper. For smaller shops, such as newsagents and night shops, there was only a ban on displaying these products, not a ban on selling them.
However, the interest group Buurtsuper.be and tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris Benelux had taken the matter to the Constitutional Court to challenge the ban.
Successfully, it seems: the Court ruled that the government’s distinction between large and small food shops is discriminatory and therefore unlawful. The government was given until 1 January 2027 to draft a new and improved law.
Now, Vandenbroucke has decided not to do so, meaning the ban will be scrapped, Het Nieuwsblad and Het Laatste Nieuws report.
The display ban will remain in force, however. Cigarettes must therefore still be kept out of sight.
