Market & legal data of alternative tobacco products in Europe

13th November 2024: Lithuania: Yesterday (12th November), the parliament approved in the final vote the amendment to tighten economic sanctions for the sale of tobacco and related products to under-18s, which was submitted to the parliament in July 2024, media reports.
12th November 2024: Russia: The Government Legislative Commission supports bill 650932-8 that would block information on the online retail sale of tobacco- and nicotine-containing products in Russia. The bill was submitted to the State Duma (a lower chamber of parliament) in June and is now awaiting its first reading. Online sales of these products are prohibited by federal law; however, lawmakers say information on remote sale is still easily found. If adopted, social networks will have to prevent the distribution of information on their platforms that contains offers to sell such products, and the information itself will be entered into the Unified Register of information prohibited in Russia, which is maintained by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).
12th November 2024: Spain: The ruling left-wing parties, Sumar and the Socialist Party (PSOE), have reached an agreement to raise the tax on tobacco products and establish an excise duty on nicotine products, press reports. The measure will be included within a tax reform package. They aim to implement an specific excise duty on nicotine pouches that would amount to €0.10 per g.
12th November 2024: Netherlands: The bill amending the Tobacco and Smoking Products Act to completely ban oral nicotine products (such as nicotine pouches), which was approved by the Senate on 1st October, enters into force on the 1st January 2025. The bill also seeks to regulate nicotine products that do not contain tobacco but that can be used as an alternative to tobacco products (such as nicotine gels, stones, herbal heated products etc.) – in addition to e-cigarettes and herbal smoking products, which are already regulated. This means the advertising ban, the age limit and other sales restrictions for these products will apply to other tobacco-free nicotine products.
12th November 2024: Ukraine: The basic version of the electronic excise system (eExcise, which will replace the current excise stamp with a data matrix code) will start operating from March 2025, media reports. The full functionality will be implemented from 2026.
11th November 2024: Slovakia: A draft amendment to the Act on the Production, Labelling and Sale of Tobacco Products has been proposed by the Smer-SD, the main governing party, that seeks to ban flavoured (except for menthol, mint, and tobacco flavours) nicotine products and disposable e-cigarettes, media reports.
11th November 2024: Finland: According to the smoke-free Finland 2030 network, which has published a summary of nicotine based on scientific evidence, it’s important to address the dangers of nicotine. The network believes measures should be taken to either prevent new nicotine products from entering the market or to impose stringent regulations on them.
8th November 2024: Austria: The Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection has notified an ordinance to the European Commission’s TRIS database with the list of prohibited ingredients in e-cigarette and heated tobacco products. The list is already published informatively on the ministry’s website, but the intention of the notification is to create legal certainty for manufacturers, importers and distributors that the ingredients listed are prohibited and subject to the legally standardised ban.
7th November 2024: EU: A group of EU organisations has called on the European Commission (EC) to accelerate the implementation of the European Beating Cancer (BeCa) Plan during the new European Commission mandate, including the review and update of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), the Tobacco Excise Directive (TED) and the Tobacco Advertising Directive (TAD). More specifically, these organisations are calling for the introduction of excise taxes on novel tobacco and nicotine products, the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products and a “ban on disposable e-cigarettes and sale to people under 18”, among others.
7th November 2024: EU: The European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) have decided to go through a second round of written questions before confirming Olivér Várhelyi as commissioner for health and animal welfare. Várhelyi will need to answer the new round of written questions by next Monday (11th November) and, after that, he will need a two-thirds majority from the committee coordinators. Várhelyi gained support from far-right groups and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), while The Greens, Renew, and Socialists & Democrats (S&D) advocated for a second hearing. The European People's Party (EPP) proposed a second round of written questions, which ultimately became the agreed-upon option, press reports.
7th November 2024: Portugal: In an explanatory note to the 2025 State Budget, the Ministry of Environment and Energy stated that a licence will be issued for the management of an Integrated Tobacco Product Waste Management System. Tobacco producers must bear the costs of cleaning up public spaces, supporting municipalities in covering the costs of urban cleaning and allowing the financing of awareness-raising measures aimed at preventing the improper disposal of this type of waste. Rates for and details about the licence were not specified. The 2025 State Budget is scheduled to have its final vote on 29th November 2024.
6th November 2024: UK: Today, the government has launched a public consultation seeking evidence on standardised packaging for all tobacco products, including heated tobacco consumables and devices. This could entail the use of health warnings, preventing packaging that is misleading and implementing plain packaging. After this consultation, which closes on 28th January 2025, the government will aim to publish a response within 12 weeks. The government will also publish another consultation on further packaging requirements, which could include pack inserts, after the evidence.

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