Electronic cigarettes will be available for purchase in tobacco shops in Spain after the commissioner for the marketing of tobacco decided they should be listed under ‘smoking articles’.
The decision means that they can be sold without the express authorisation of the government.
In October, the European Commission approved a directive that e-cigarettes should not be marketed as a medication, something the manufacturing companies had feared because of the vast number of requisites that would have been imposed on their production and sale.
The EC did, however, impose restrictions similar to those on regular cigarettes, preventing advertising and their sale to minors. The decision on whether or not e-cigarettes, which produce a vapour rather than smoke, should be exempt from smoking bans was left up to the discretion of member states.