Market & legal data of alternative tobacco products in Europe

14th March 2025: Moldova: Yesterday (13th March), the parliament passed the first reading of a draft law to strengthen smoking regulations. The bill would expand the list of places where smoking is prohibited, increase fines, and introduce additional sales restrictions, labelling and health warning requirements for tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs). Moreover, the bill plans to ban nicotine pouches.
14th March 2025: Estonia: After several months at a standstill, bill 223 SE is advancing in the legislative procedure. This bill would define heated tobacco products (HTPs) within the Estonian tobacco framework and finally transpose the Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2022/2100 on banning flavours in HTPs. The deadline to transpose the directive had already passed on 23rd July 2023. The Social Affairs Standing Committee is scheduled to meet and discuss the bill on 17th March 2025 and potentially complete the first reading.
13th March 2025: Austria: Parliament is in the process of discussing the Budget Restructuring Measures Act 2025, which proposes to increase heated tobacco product (HTP) excise rates to €339/kg. The current Tobacco Act had only planned on increasing heated tobacco taxes to €215/kg in 2026. The bill was already passed in the National Council, and it is now up to the Federal Council to deliberate and propose amendments. If the bill is adopted, the new tax rate will be applicable for all HTPs from 31st March 2025.
13th March 2025: Moldova: The Centre for Health Policy and Analysis, a non-governmental health agency in Moldova, published the findings of its study on nicotine pouches and young people, titled “Young Audience – The Main Target of the Nicotine Sachet Industry”. It argues that aggressive marketing strategies and the use of sweet flavours are deliberately targeting youth. This was published yesterday, 12th March, one day before the draft law that proposes to ban nicotine pouches is discussed by Parliament. Despite having been on the agenda on several occasions, it has not yet been discussed.
13th March 2025: EU: A letter signed by 362 civil society organisations calls on the European Parliament and Council to reject the omnibus package that seeks to weaken due diligence reporting rules, media reports. The omnibus package would remove around 80% of companies from the scope of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and delay reporting timelines for companies in the scope of both the CSRD and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, media reports. We believe that if meeting the requirements, vaping and tobacco companies would also need to adhere to the rules.
13th March 2025: EU: In response to US president Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, the EU has prepared a comprehensive list of US products that might face retaliatory tariffs. The list covers heated tobacco, nicotine pouches, and e-cigarettes, along with other tobacco and related products. The European Commission has opened a consultation to gather feedback from those impacted by the tariffs, with a submission deadline set for 26th March.
12th March 2025: Portugal: Prime minister Luís Montenegro, facing accusations of conflict of interest from the opposition, has been censured by the parliament, leading to the collapse of the government. As widely expected, Portugal will now head to early elections, likely in late May, marking the third national election since 2022. Montenegro, leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which follows a liberal-conservative ideology, has not pursued restrictive policies on novel tobacco products. Unlike some other European governments, the PSD has not pushed for bans on new tobacco alternatives, but it implemented the World Health Organization (WHO) smoking reduction objectives, limiting smoking in public spaces and restricting heated tobacco in the same way as combustible cigarettes.
11th March 2025: Sweden: Following a request from the Public Health Agency for changes to fees on tobacco products and electronic cigarettes, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has launched a consultation with targeted stakeholders before drafting the proposal. Responses must be submitted to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs by 5th June 2025.
11th March 2025: France: A report by Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT) highlights multiple instances of influencers promoting novel tobacco products since 2019, in violation of French law (law 2023-451 of 9th June 2023). The report identifies 948 posts from 229 influencers that promoted tobacco and nicotine products to the French-speaking Instagram community between 2019 and 2024 and reached an audience of over 24m – primarily of young people. The posts feature e-cigarette brands Vuse (formerly Vype) and Blu, as well as Velo nicotine pouches. In response, ACT has called for an immediate ban on nicotine pouches. The government notified a draft decree banning oral nicotine products, including pouches, pastes, liquids, gums and lozenges, to the European Commision through the TRIS notification system in February.
10th March 2025: Sweden: The Public Health Agency has updated the publicly available list of nicotine pouches authorised for sale.
10th March 2025: Sweden: The Public Health Agency has updated the publicly available list of heated tobacco products (HTPs), oral tobacco products and herbal heated products authorised for sale.
10th March 2025: Germany: Negotiations are advancing swiftly to establish a coalition between the two traditionally largest parties in the Bundestag: the centre-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), which won the elections, and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which finished third. Over the weekend, a summary document outlining the key agreements (Results of the Exploratory Talks between CDU, CSU, and SPD) was published, containing no references to tobacco control policies or public health. However, as forecast in our Policy Radar, based on past actions, we anticipate that a CDU/CSU-led government will take a more lenient stance on novel tobacco products compared to the previous SPD-led administration. This suggests a lower likelihood of strict regulatory measures such as flavour bans, high taxes, or plain packaging. That said, this does not mean that nicotine pouches will be legalised in the short term; less than a month ago, CDU health spokesperson Tino Sorge stated: “It would be wrong to make access easier in this country without any need”.

LATEST ALERTS

Alternative tobacco and nicotine products in Europe

Italy is still Europe’s top heated tobacco market as shifts in the industry ramp up

Poland seeks to rein in novel tobacco product laws during its EU presidency

Imperial Brands to show harm-reduction evidence for heated tobacco at EVO NXT

UK: the nicotine pouch market – consumer survey report, March 2025

Estonia: nicotine pouch market snapshot, March 2025

Italy: the heated tobacco market – consumer survey report, February 2025

Ireland: oral tobacco and nicotine pouch regulation, March 2025

Finland: heated tobacco and herbal heated product regulation, March 2025

Finland: oral tobacco and nicotine pouch regulation, March 2025

Nicotine pouch market sizes

Heated tobacco markets database

Herbal heated sticks tracker

TobaccoIntelligence compliance calendar

Regulatory database: global alerts round-up, February

Global regulatory tracker: heated tobacco regulation, February

Sign up to our newsletter

LATEST ALERTS

Alternative tobacco and nicotine products in Europe

Sign up to our newsletter

Start your FREE trial