Actual candies tend to be larger, like peppermints, or else you eat a bunch at once, like Nerds. Tic Tacs literally come in a tiny sturdy dispenser box because they're breath mints designed to keep with you for days/weeks. Not a cardboard box to consume in one or two sittings.
"Hard mints are hard candies or boiled sweets flavored with mint. Examples of hard mints include starlight mints, also known as pinwheel mints, white, circular, with red or green rays emitting from the middle; candy canes; humbugs; and brand name mints such as Altoids and Ice Breakers."
Based on what? I think they're definitely candy.