Tibor Demjén said Elf Bar products are featured on sites popular with young people, such as TikTok and Facebook, adding that some videos with Elf Bar products have over 1m views.

He said anti-smoking programmes have been launched in over half of the kindergartens in Hungary and several hundred in Hungarian-speaking regions outside of the country, while classroom activities for teachers are available on the website cikiacigi.hu.

Hungary’s Regulated Activities Oversight Authority (SZTFH) recently said it would continue to use “all legal means at its disposal” to put the squeeze on underage smoking and to protect the legal market, after the European Commission “blocked” its expedited effort to regulate herbal products heated for consumption in a crackdown on Elf Bar electronic cigarettes.