The amendments made in Law No. 4207 on Prevention and Control of Hazards of Tobacco Products (“Law No. 4207”), as well as the Regulation on Manufacturing, Labelling and Supervision of Tobacco Products (“Regulation”), which was prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, introduced the plain packaging principle for tobacco products, and amended the rules to be applied concerning health warnings on tobacco products.
The amendments in Law No. 4207, as well as the new Regulation, have very detailed and technical rules for implementation of plain packaging for tobacco products. According to those tobacco products manufactured in Turkey, or imported into Turkey, they shall be offered for sale with plain and standardized packages that marks the writing style, font, type size, and location on the package, and the color of the packages, other texts, phrases and shapes must be designed in the same way. These rules also apply in tobacco cases that include multiple packages. It is compulsory that the packaging of tobacco products should be in Pantone Craft Brown color, and the manufacturer’s brand on the packaging should be in Pantone Cool Gray color. None of the tobacco products, including the parcel and content elements, should have the manufacturer's brand, logo, icon, or any other signs thereon. The brand may only be written in plain text with determined color and font size.
Special attention has been paid to health warnings printed in certain sizes on tobacco products for many years. Upon the amendments made in the legislation, the size of the health warnings incorporating visuals and Turkish text that are applied on tobacco product packages and hookah bottles, were increased to eighty-five percent from sixty-five percent, and on both sides of the packages.
In an aim to restrict the access by consumers, it has been ruled that tobacco products must be offered for sale in closed cabinets that people cannot directly access or see at tobacco sale points (package stores, grocery stores, buffets, etc.). The use and display of tobacco products or their images in movie theatres or theatres, as well as in TV programmes, movies, TV-series, music videos and advertisements, is prohibited.
The transition period for removal of the existing tobacco products, and for re-launch of the products that must comply with the new amendments, ended on 05.01.2020. Hence, plain packaging rules are now entirely in force in Turkey.