Regulating Unhealthy Lifestyles in the European Union : The Dilemmas of an Internal Market for Tobacco, Alcohol and Foods

This book critically examines the EU's attempts to promote healthier lifestyles through the commodification of tobacco, food, and alcohol. It offers a comprehensive overview of the regulation of these products under EU law and addresses key contemporary challenges in internal market regulation and harmonisation.

This book examines how European Union (EU) law regulates unhealthy lifestyles, focusing on the consumption of tobacco, alcoholic beverages and foods of poor nutritional quality. The first part of the book clarifies the EU's competences in this field and the content of its policy. It also outlines the main regulatory tools adopted in relation to each of the risk factors covered, such as product bans, labelling requirements or advertising restrictions. The second part of the book explores the fundamental tension between the commodification of these lifestyles and the pursuit of health policy objectives. It addresses two central questions: How does EU law reconcile the goal of creating a market for unhealthy products with that of reducing or eliminating their consumption? And how does EU law balance market uniformity with the diversity and scientific uncertainty inherent in lifestyle practices?