30 09.2026: ‘Pro Rauchfrei’ criticises the extreme imbalance and calls for corrective action before 5 October
Pro Rauchfrei e. V., Germany’s largest association for the protection of non-smokers, has strongly criticised the composition of the list of experts for the public hearing on the draft bill to amend the Tobacco Tax Act (BT-Drs. 21/7859) on 5 October 2026.
Of the nine experts invited, only three represent the health sciences perspective: the AOK Federal Association, Katrin Schaller from the German Cancer Research Centre, and health economist Dr Tobias Effertz from the University of Hamburg. In contrast, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group alone has nominated three interest groups representing the tobacco industry: the Federal Association of the Tobacco Industry and Novel Products (BVTE), the Federal Association of the Cigar Industry and the Association of the German Smoking Tobacco Industry (VdR).
Anyone who, at a hearing on tobacco duty, invites just three experts from the field of health research out of a total of nine invited experts is not organising a balanced expert hearing but rather providing a platform for lobbying interests
explains Arne Weinhardt, Chair of Pro Rauchfrei e. V.
Tobacco duty is the most effective means of reducing smoking, particularly amongst young people. Parliament must make a decision on this matter based on independent evidence rather than on the arguments of an industry which, for decades, has been allowed to make consumers in this country addicted, whilst earning billions and passing on the resulting harm to the general public.
Pro Rauchfrei calls for:
- adding to the list of at least two further independent experts from the fields of public health, addiction research or preventive medicine,
- consistent applying of the principles of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC, Article 5.3) which stipulate that policy-making processes must be protected from the influence of the tobacco industry.
Germany has ratified the FCTC and is therefore obliged to protect public policy from the commercial interests of the tobacco industry. The composition of this hearing does not fulfil this obligation.