Traceability system in the Republic of Croatia

The European Parliament and the Council of Europe adopted on April 3, 2014 the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40 /EU 1. The general objective of the Tobacco Products Directive is approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products.

Taking into account Directive 2014/40 / EU, the European Commission adopted on December 12, 2018 the Implementing Regulation 2018/574 on technical standards for the establishment and operation of traceability systems for tobacco products.

Pursuant to the Ordinance on the implementation of the technical aspects of the establishment and application of the Traceability System for Tobacco Products (NN 61/2018), the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Croatia has appointed Agencija za komercijalnu djelatnost d.o.o. as a legal entity responsible for generating and issuing unique ID codes for the Republic of Croatia.

Pursuant the Ordinance on Amendments to the Ordinance of the technical aspects of the establishment and application of the Traceability System for Tobacco Products (NN 110/2018), the Ministry of Finance has applied the exemption clause stated in Article 4, paragraph 1 of Commission Implementing Regulation 2018/574 on Technical Standards for Establishment and Operation of the Traceability System of Tobacco Products, and accordingly, AKD d.o.o., is responsible for issuing unique codes for tobacco products placed on the Croatian market.

The basic features of the traceability system defined by Implementing Regulation 2018/574 are the following:

all unit packets of tobacco products in EU, destined for the EU market or placed on the EU market are to be marked with a unique identifier (there are going to be previously defined information about the place and date of production, its destination etc.)
their movements have to be recorded throughout the whole supply chain (from manufacturer till the last level, before the retail outlet)
Information about the recorded movements will be stored by the independent storage providers (with whom the manufacturers and importers of tobacco products have to conclude the deal, to be approved by the Commission), and the data available to the bodies (Member States and Commission) for the purpose of implementation.
in order for. This will enable such products to be tracked and traced throughout the EU. Technical specifications regarding the system's establishment and operation, as well as its compatibility throughout the Union, should be laid down.
In this way, the traceability system will allow monitoring of the movements of legitimate tobacco products and enable public bodies to determine at which moment the product is redirected to the illegal market or vice versa.

The Regulations will enter into force on May 20, 2019.

The process of registration of economic operators through the traceability system of tobacco products in the Republic of Croatia will begin on 23.4.2019.