At a time in which food taxes are gaining momentum throughout Europe, this presentation provides an initial analysis on the genesis, rationale, scientific evidence and legal implications stemming from the introduction of such fiscal schemes.

2. Presentation
Definition
Rationale
Aim(s)
Debate
Legal implications

3. A fat tax is
tax or surcharge on:
Food
Beverage
Individual
aimed at decrease consumption

4. rationale
Like all Pigouvian taxes
imposed on good/services whose price does not reflect the
true social cost of their consumption

5. aim
Fat tax
prices consumption
but also

6. other aims

7. debate
Ineffective
Regressive
Design

8. evidence
limited, drawn from tobacco/alcohol
revolves around ‘price nutrient elasticity’:
how easy is to escape taxation by buying a
substitute?
o less effective on obese, more prevention tool

9. regressive
a greater burden (relative to resources) on the poor
than on the rich
and
Low-income more exposed to social cost
yet being more price sensitive more effective

10. tax design
Target?
food/beverage/individual
Structure?
fixed % of price ‘unhealthy item’ (like sale tax/VAT)
Tax above given threshold of a nutrient
Tax per unit or weight

12. The WHO recommends to member states
that they should consider fiscal policies to
promote health but that such policies
should be evaluated to assess the risk of
any unintentional effects of such policies on
vulnerable populations

13. EU ?

15. HOW WILL THEY SCORE UNDER EU LAW?

16. Indirect internal tax
Harmonised on:
Fat taxes under Alcohol
EU LAW Tobacco
Energy
Structure:
Product categories
Tax base
Exemptions
Minimum rate
 In the absence of
harmonisation, MS free, but
under the limits of

17. Article 110 TFEU
prohibits internal discriminatory taxation, direct
or indirect, on products from other Member
States, in excess of that imposed on ‘similar
domestic products’
EU COMM 

19. Article 113 TFEU
Entitles the EU to adopt provisions for the
harmonisation of legislation concerning … excise
duties and other forms of indirect taxation to the
extent that such harmonisation is necessary to
ensure the establishment of the internal market
and to avoid distortion of competition.
To be read in the light of public health provision and
precedents in taxation of tobacco and mineral oil

20. Scrap the tax
cross-border trade
yet not the trigger
downsizing
EU-wide tax?

21. Conclusions
despite their limits,
there is a case for their experimentation
within the EU ‘regulatory mix’