11/5/2020 Regulatory report: Austria – heated tobacco - TobaccoIntelligence
A republic in central Europe, Austria has an estimated population of 9m, with one of the highest standards of living on the continent. It has been a member of the European Union (EU) since 1995 and a member of the eurozone since its inception in 1999.
Its economy is relatively small, but it has one of the EU’s highest levels of GDP per capita, and one of the lowest unemployment rates. It also has a smoking rate of 24 %.
The Austrian constitution defines the country as a federal democratic republic, divided into nine federal states, or Bundesländer. However, Austrian federal states do not have as much power as US states or German Länder. Indeed, Austrian federalism is often considered theoretical because the central government holds the overwhelming majority of power. For the e-cigarette industry, the most important responsibilities of the individual states are youth protection and urban planning.
The bicameral Austrian parliament consists of the National Council (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council(Bundesrat). Three political parties dominate both chambers: the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), the left-wing Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), and the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
Between December 2017 and June 2019, Austria was governed by the coalition of the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Sebastian Kurz, leader of ÖVP, was the chancellor of Austria (the equivalent of prime minister) until June 2019.
Following the resignation of FPÖ ministers from the coalition government over a corruption scandal involving party leader and former vice-chancellor Heinz- Christian Strache, at the end of May 2019 Kurz’s technocratic government received a vote of no confidence from the National Council. On 3rd June, president Alexander Van der Bellen (in office since January 2017) swore in a new technocratic government and appointed Brigitte Bierlein as chancellor.
After the September 2019 snap elections, a new coalition of ÖVP with the Green Party was formed, and Sebastian Kurz was re-elected as chancellor of Austria.
As Heinz-Christian Strache vehemently opposed the introduction of a comprehensive ban on smoking and vaping in bars and restaurants, the new government seized the opportunity to tighten anti-smoking laws, notably by extending the public ban to restaurants and bars, effective as of November 2019 (for more details see the section on Public usage).
National regulatory framework
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