As the European Union advances the revision of its key tobacco control legislation, the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and the Tobacco Advertising Directive (TAD), the tobacco industry is mounting an unprecedented campaign to influence the policymaking process through the European Commission's consultation process.

Public consultations and call for feedback are a legitimate and essential part of democratic decision-making, enabling citizens, experts and stakeholders to contribute to the development of public policies. However, the scale and nature of the industry's mobilisation efforts risk undermining the integrity of this process and distorting the evidence base on which public health policies should be built.                           
The ongoing consultation process has already received more than 50,000 feedback submissions and over 1,500 responses to the public consultation questionnaire and it is evident that a significant share of these contributions has been driven by coordinated tobacco industry campaigns.

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