The so-called "Spanish model" - Tobacco industry strategies and its impact in Europe and Latin America

Aware of the increasing trend towards smoking restrictions and bans in public venues in the early to mid 1990s, PM introduced an international accommodation campaign as a tactical tool to create goodwill amongst legislators and prevent smoking bans [6]. The strategy was coordinated by the Worldwide Regulatory Affairs department with the objective to "initiate, develop and assist with the implementation of worldwide programs that encourage self-regulation and recognize the benefits of using ventilation effectively to facilitate reasonable accommodation and preserve the social acceptability of smoking" [7]. It used a three-tier-approach: 1) "Courtesy of Choice", to establish smoking and non-smoking rooms, using ventilation to accomplish separation; 2) "Traditional Hospitality", to "enhance the comfort for all customers in small restaurants, cafes, bars and taverns [...] without separating into smoking and non-smoking areas."; and 3) "A Smoking Place", as a smoking lounge concept for large public spaces, e.g. in Spanish airports [8], to demonstrate the "compatibility of indoor environmental quality and accommodating smoking" [7].

Although the programmes were run by the International Hotels & Restaurants' Association (IH&RA) in collaboration with public relations firms and ventilation experts, the oversight, strategic planning and funding came from PM's Worldwide Regulatory Affairs department [6]. Since its rollout in 1995, with 460 sites in 9 countries and costs of roughly US$ 1 million, the international accommodation programme expanded considerably, operating in 8.357 sites in 47 countries and costing US$ 15 million in 1999 [6, 9]⁹. The ultimate goal of this global programme was to prevent smoking bans and restrictions by creating a reasonable and viable alternative to smoking bans [6, 10]. To maximise the impact on legislators on regional, national and European level, key venues were chosen for the programmes, such as the restaurants of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum and the Bilbao City Auditorium "Palacio Euskalduna" in Spain, as examples for "Traditional Hospitality" [11], as well as the restaurants of the Belgian and Dutch national Parliaments, the Council of Europe (3 locations), European Court of Human Rights (2 locations) and the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as examples of "Courtesy of Choice" [5].

Spain was involved in the programme since 1996 [10] and was one of only 5 countries to pilot "Traditional Hospitality" in 1999, along with Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands [6]. In 1999 the public relations agency J.A. Llorente & O. Cuenca was contracted by PM to run the "Traditional Hospitality" programme in Spain and "Courtesy of Choice" in Latin America [12, 13]. According to PM the agency's "presence in Europe adds value to the program since they will be well positioned to transfer knowledge across the two regions and share the many worthy Latin American initiatives" [13]. In Spain the agency's role also included "establishing appropiate relations with the Spanish Restaurant Association,(FER), in order to implement the programme sponsored by the IH&RA, with the "FER" acting as cosponsors" [13]. PM also commissioned an economic study which suggested that a proposed bill would cause a 7% decline in Spanish restaurant revenues and large declines in hospitality industry profits [5]. Besides extensive work by national and international tobacco control advocates and researchers [3, 4], the pro-tobacco lobby not only did succeed in "proving the case" and passing a "reasonable legislation" [6, 7], but actually managed to lock measures resembling both accommodation programmes in national law: "Courtesy of Choice" for venues bigger than 100 m² and "Traditional Hospitality" for smaller venues [2].

We identified that since 2006 at least nine European and five Latin American countries introduced similar exceptions based on venue size, either on national or sub-national level (province) (Table 3).

Following the example of Spain, the exceptions for small venues and the focus on traditional hospitality had far-reaching consequences, especially in European countries with strong traditional values linked to tobacco use. Besides the German speaking countries and Croatia, all identified countries with partial bans were originally part of PM's accommodation programmes [6].

Germany was a special case, as PM deliberately decided not to run their programmes there. It reported that Germany had a well organized industry association and PM's management was "not prepared to alienate the association" [6]. In 2007 and 2008 however, after the introduction of smoking bans in several German "Länder" (Federal States), tobacco industry lobbyists, the liberal party and the German hospitality industry association Deutscher Hotel- und Gaststättenverband (DeHoGa) advocated for the so-called "Spanish model" as an alternative to a 100% smokefree policy in one-room venues: "In Spain they found a solution, which is fair to everyone"[14]. The Spanish law was used as a proxy for the industry's accommodation programmes. In July 2008 the Federal Constitutional Court concluded that although a complete ban would have been constitutional, "freedom of choice" and "mandatory designation" would provide an alternative to a 100% smokefree law - provided that the venues only have one room, are under 75 m² in size, do not serve prepared food and are not accessible to minors [15]. The main characteristics of the interim solution proposed by the court included the key elements of the Spanish legislation (Ley 28/2005) and outlined the strategies of the accommodation programme operated by PM. The concept of separating smokers and non-smokers in larger venues ("Courtesy of Choice") and allowing smaller venues to choose if smoking is allowed ("Traditional Hospitality") reached constitutionality and was thereafter locked into the state laws of most German states. Only Bavaria became 100% smokefree after a referendum in 2010. In the Netherlands opponents of comprehensive smoking bans advocated for the "German model". In 2010 the Netherlands lifted an earlier ban for all bars, which did not exceed 70 m² and were solely operated by the owners without employing additional staff. According to news reports this applied to over 3,000 of around 5,500 Dutch bars [16].

In contrast to most partial bans which introduced restrictions based on venue size, some regulations, such as the national laws in the Czech Republic, Bolivia, Mexico, and Nicaragua, and the Province of Buenos Aires in Argentina, allowed smoking rooms or smoking venues without size specifications, probably only following one of PM's accommodation concepts [7]. Since July 2010 it is enough to place a smoking or non-smoking sticker in any Czech restaurant or bar.

In the meantime some countries strengthened their legislation. In 2009, Mexico introduced strict regulations for the implementation of the national law, specifically to the provisions of the smoking rooms (e.g., negative pressure ventilation, sliding doors, etc.) making very difficult to have them in practice. Greece, which introduced a partial smoking ban in 2009, opted for a comprehensive smoking ban in 2010, but retained exceptions for airport lounges, as proposed in PM's "A Smoking Place" concept [7].

The "Spanish model" was also used to challenge existing smoking bans, such as in Uruguay, where shortly after the introduction of a comprehensive national smokefree policy in 2006, a national tobacco company started an advertising campaign with the punchline "Spain and the freedom to choose" [17], implying that countries under that model would be more democratic and tolerant.