The Supreme Court of Ukraine (SCU) has ruled that hookahs in restaurants are a promotion of tobacco products, and therefore hookahs are absolutely prohibited in restaurants, regardless of their composition.
In this way, the Ukrainian judiciary has defended the right of citizens to health in order to strengthen the fight against the tobacco epidemic.
Since 2012, advertising and promotion of tobacco products, including hookah tobacco, have been banned in Ukraine. Despite this, unscrupulous business entities provided hookah services, which by definition is a form of advertising and promotion of tobacco sales.
The Supreme Court of Ukraine, having considered the cassation appeals of the Main Department of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection in Kyiv in cases No. 320/29317/23 and No. 320/23655/23, issued decisions confirming the legality of the imposition of financial sanctions by the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection on business entities for stimulating the sale of tobacco products by providing hookah services, which are violations of Article 16 of Law 2899-IV.
The Supreme Court notes: “The provision of hookah services by an establishment should be considered as a promotion of tobacco products and tobacco use, even if there is no direct advertising of the product.”
In addition, it is prohibited to place information about hookah services on the menu: “The placement of information about tobacco products or related services in the menu of a restaurant establishment or on posters falls under the prohibition of advertising and promotion of tobacco products, trademarks for goods and services.”
Thus, restaurant establishments are not allowed to provide hookah services at all. Theposting of information about tobacco products and items related to their use is prohibited (except for one poster no larger than 40×30 cm per point of sale, which provides textual information printed in black on a white background about tobacco products available for sale and their prices).
The above positions of the Supreme Court are fully consistent with international standards, in particular the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the WHO FCTC Guidelines and Directive 2014/40/EU, which prohibit any advertising of tobacco products, including hookah tobacco and hookah accessories.
The Law No. 2899-IV stipulates that violation of Article 16 is punishable by a fine of UAH 30 thousand, and in case of repeated violation within a year – UAH 50 thousand for each fact of advertising on a separate advertising medium or each separate event to promote the sale of tobacco products.
“The decision of the Supreme Court is extremely important as it confirms that the actions of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection in preventing advertising and promotion of tobacco products through hookahs are in line with the law. Thus, we see in action that the health of citizens is a priority for the state and it is able to defend it,” emphasized Dmytro Kupyra, executive director of the NGO ‘Life’.
Hookah smoking is dangerous for the health of both smokers and people around them, as hookah smoke contains a high concentration of toxic substances and carcinogens. The World Health Organization emphasizes: 1 hour of hookah smoking can be equal in terms of smoke exposure to a hundred cigarettes smoked. During a hookah session, a smoker takes about 200 puffs, inhaling 30-40 times more smoke than when smoking cigarettes.
Prolonged inhalation of secondary hookah smoke can cause dizziness, carbon monoxide poisoning, and later asthma, coronary heart disease, stroke, and even lung, esophageal, and stomach cancer.
WHO surveys show that 2.6% of Ukrainians are hookah smokers, with this share concentrated in the youngest age group of 18-29 years old.
FDI McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd, which is developing the McDonald’s fast food chain in Ukraine, plans to open six new restaurants in 2024, Yulia Badritdinova, CEO of McDonald’s Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“In 2023, we expanded our network to 101 restaurants, 10 of which are new restaurants. We have opened a new format – on the highway (near Zhytomyr and in Oleksandriya). These establishments are not just on the highway, they are tied to the city where we can hire staff and whose residents are also our customers. We plan to open at least six restaurants in 2024,” she said.
Badritdinova also said that one of the chain’s goals for this year is to achieve representation in each of the regions.
“There are two regions where we are not yet represented – Zaporizhzhia and Chernivtsi, and I hope we will open restaurants this year,” she said.
The first McDonald’s restaurant in Ukraine was opened on May 24, 1997 in Kyiv.
As reported, on September 20, 2022, McDonald’s began a phased opening of restaurants in Ukraine. By February 24 of the same year, the chain had 109 restaurants in 24 cities across the country. As of March 2024, there are 101 restaurants in operation.
At the end of 2023, it increased its revenue by 3.9 times compared to the previous year, to UAH 12.9 billion, according to Opendatabot.
According to the financial results for 2023, the company’s net profit amounted to UAH 1.29 billion, compared to a loss of UAH 2 billion in 2022.
The value of McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd’s assets amounted to UAH 5.54 billion, while the amount of liabilities increased 2.3 times to UAH 829.7 million.
The number of employees in 2023 increased by 7% to 9,614.
McDonald’s in Ukraine is a founding partner and the largest corporate partner of the Ronald McDonald House Foundation in Ukraine.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the participant in FDI in McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. is MCD Europe Limited (100%, London, UK).
Kyiv’s catering establishments will extend their working hours by one hour to 23:00, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday. According to him, the decision was made by the Kyiv Defense Council. It will come into force on September 1.
“Representatives of the National Restaurant Association of Ukraine addressed the city authorities with this request. The decision to restrict the operation of establishments until 22:00 was made when the curfew in the capital began at 23:00. Now it starts at 00:00. During a meeting with the city authorities, where they justified the feasibility of such a decision, entrepreneurs emphasized that extending the opening hours of establishments would help improve the economic situation in the capital, create additional jobs, and increase revenues from taxes, fees, and payments to budgets of all levels,” Klitschko wrote.
Italian restaurants across the UK are being forced to reduce the amount of tomatoes in their dishes, and in some cases to remove them altogether, due to a catastrophic rise in the price of this key product for many dishes from the Apennines.
According to the Federazione Italian Cuochi (FIC UK), the prices of tomatoes in the kingdom have risen from £5 a pack to £20 over the past year. The price of canned tomatoes has doubled from £15 to £30.
The president of the association Enzo Oliveri said that these were very difficult times for Italian restaurants. He said FIC UK members usually order tomatoes from Italy, Spain or Morocco, but now, with shortages everywhere, it’s getting harder to get tomatoes.
“I don’t see any glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel,” Oliveri said, adding that many establishments will likely have to close.
Oliveri said some restaurants are trying to move away from using the ingredient and are starting to offer diners “white” pizzas and pastas that have no tomatoes at all. Chefs are using ricotta or vegetables such as zucchini and eggplant as a base or for sauces.
For his part, Carmelo Carnevale, president of the Italian Culinary Consortium, said tomato prices have tripled in the past two weeks alone. Restaurants are still getting the product, but in completely different quantities.
There is a shortage of fruits and vegetables, especially tomatoes, in Britain. Supermarket shelves where they used to be located are now empty. Authorities cite weather in southern Europe and northern Africa as the cause, as well as high electricity prices in Britain and the Netherlands.
Florian Bollen, a German businessman and co-owner of craft breweries German Kraft Beer, Tarantino Family restaurant chain is coming under the control of Florian Bollen, the chain’s website says.
“From October 1, 2022, the Tarantino Family will come under the control of the German businessman and co-owner of craft breweries Florian Bollen. The new owner already owns the German Kraft Beer chain in London, plans to invest and develop the restaurant market in Kyiv,” the message says.
Bollen’s LinkedIn indicates that the businessman will take over the restaurant chain.
“The start of work in Kyiv will be a great confirmation of our belief in the victory of the Ukrainians and a good example for European investors,” he commented.
The Tarantino Family network in Kyiv includes restaurants “Rukkola”, “Murakami”, Villa Riviera and others, in total 28 objects. Among the owners of the network is Dmitry Fedotenkov.
As reported, the capital’s law enforcement officers are investigating the criminal activities of the owners of a well-known restaurant chain for the legalization and withdrawal of funds in the Russian Federation. According to the Kyiv prosecutor’s office, citizens of Ukraine – the owners of a large restaurant chain – retained control over the business in the territory of the aggressor country, transferring it to the management of a Russian restaurateur. The name of the network was not called, but later information spread in the media that it was about the Tarantino Family.
About 7,000 restaurants and cafes have closed in Ukraine since the start of the war, and more than 2,000 new establishments have opened, Olha Nasonova, co-founder of the National Restaurant Association of Ukraine, told Interfax-Ukraine.
“There are no exact statistics, because. it is simply not being carried out now, among these 7 thousand there are closed establishments and those about which there is no data (in the occupied territories, in shelling zones). The market shrank by about 25% compared to February 2022. In some regions, the market decline was more than 50% (Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporozhye, Lugansk regions), in Kyiv, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk regions – a drop of up to 30%,” Nasonova said.
At the same time, according to her, positive dynamics is observed in the western regions. In Lviv and the region, the number of restaurants and cafes increased by approximately 30%, in the Transcarpathian, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk regions, an increase of approximately 20% was noted.
“Bythe beginning of summer, the market decline was more significant. But since June, restaurants began to open in Kyiv, as well as in the western regions, in general, more than 2 thousand establishments. The restaurant market developed most intensively in Lviv – more than 500 new establishments in the region since the beginning of the war. Of all the cities in western Ukraine, Lviv is the most cosmopolitan and the busiest,” Nasonova said.
According to her, among the summer openings of Lviv were establishments of “promoted” chains: Bao Casual (owner Taras Seredyuk), “Ostannya Barrikada” (Dmitry Borisov), a number of franchising establishments.
At the same time, the expert noted that it is incorrect to talk about the “relocation” of restaurants. “In fact, truly displaced, i.e. those who transported equipment, furniture, etc., are few. More often the restaurant turned out to be simply destroyed, or in the occupied territory, and there was simply nothing to take out. Therefore, new restaurants were opened,” Nasonova said.
In her opinion, restaurant investors began to consider cities in Western Ukraine as more profitable for starting a new business. As for expansion abroad, there are still few such examples. “It is planned to open Chernomorka, institutions of Borisov, Sukhomlin. Countries – Poland and Germany, but more Poland. There are more Ukrainians there, and the mentality of the Poles is closer to ours,” the expert said.
Established in 2021, the National Restaurant Association of Ukraine (NRAU) for May 2022 unites more than 50 members, 450 restaurants and cafes.
