The FDA calls electronic cigarettes “electronic nicotine delivery systems” (ENDS). To them, e-cigs are a tobacco product. Why should what they think matter? The European Union is taking steps to tax e-cigarettes in the same way that they tax tobacco products. The EU recently completed the process of receiving comments from the public about this matter. Several questions come to mind on the subject of taxing electronic cigarettes in the same way as combustible cigarettes. For example, taxes on traditional cigarettes are deliberately high in order to dissuade as many people as possible from taking up smoking. Are e-cigarettes equally dangerous to the point of deserving such “punitive” taxes? Whatever decision is taken in the EU is likely to have a bearing on what happens in the US and other jurisdictions. Read the full discussion on this debate and see whether the proposed taxes are justifiable or not.