The Ombudsman launched an own-initiative inquiry to examine the transparency of meetings between the European Commission and representatives of the tobacco industry, as well as to assess how the Commission complies with the relevant provisions of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of the World Health Organization.

The Ombudsman inquiry team inspected certain documents held by the Commission concerning interactions with the tobacco industry and discussed these at a meeting with Commission representatives. Based on this, the Ombudsman sent her preliminary findings to the Commission, and asked it to reply. These findings concern the publication of details of interactions with tobacco interest representatives, record-keeping related to interactions with the tobacco sector and how the Commission assesses the 'necessity' of such interactions.