On Monday, October 6, eight European Union health ministers sent a joint letter to Olivér Várhelyi, the European Commissioner for Health, proposing a ban on the market placement of any new product containing nicotine. The signatories also requested neutral packaging for nicotine products, a ban on flavored products across the Union, stricter control of advertising on social media, and restrictions on purchases from sellers outside the EU. Sophie Hermans, one of the signatories, explained the initiative as an effort to prevent young people from becoming dependent on "future vapes." This proposal comes at a time when the EU's legislative agenda is already packed. The European Commission is required to present by the end of the year its proposal for revising the tobacco directive, which has been in effect since 2014. A public consultation took place between May and August, but the results have not yet been released. This letter, therefore, anticipates the Commission's proposal, which would be a new approach in the European legislative process: the current directive regulates products after they appear on the market, not before. A general ban on products not yet available should, according to the principles of Union law, respect the requirements of proportionality and legal certainty. The letter raises several questions that remain unanswered. It does not clarify how the measure would differentiate products based on their level of risk or what role would be left for alternatives to cigarettes for adult smokers. The cigarette, which the Commission attributes to more than 700,000 deaths per year in the EU, is not affected by the proposed freeze. The distribution network is directly affected by the proposed measures, but the letter does not address this. In several signatory countries, the sale of tobacco relies on local stores, such as tobacco shops in France, estancos in Spain, and tabacchi in Italy. These shops have increasingly sold combustion-free products in recent years to compensate for the decline in cigarette sales. However, no economic impact assessment of these measures accompanies the letter. The issue of the parallel market—where consumers buy products in one country and resell them in another—is also not mentioned in the letter. Three of the eight signatories—France, Belgium, and the Netherlands—are particularly affected by this issue. The Dutch minister justified European action by pointing to price and regulatory differences between member states, implicitly acknowledging that national measures can lead to cross-border purchases. However, the letter does not consider the implications of this observation on the effectiveness of the proposed measures. The letter was signed by eight of the EU's twenty-seven member states. The revision of the tobacco directive will require approval from both the European Parliament and the Council. The Commission has not yet publicly responded to the letter.