Market & legal data of alternative tobacco products in Europe

21st November 2024: EU: Yesterday, 20th November, the European Parliament adopted a motion for a resolution on the Council’s recommendation on smoke- and aerosol-free environments. In the motion, the European Parliament twice says that “electronic cigarettes could allow some smokers to gradually give up smoking”, showing its view that the updated Council recommendation and national provisions should take this perspective into account. The European Parliament has also expressed its concerns over “the growing public health risks posed by the rise of black market vaping products”, while also calling on the European Commission to propose, as soon as possible, amendments to the Tobacco Advertising Directive, Tobacco Taxation Directive and Tobacco Products Directive.
21st November 2024: EU: The main political groups in the European Parliament – the European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists & Democrats, and the centrist Renew Europe group – reached an agreement on the composition of the next European Commission (EC). This compromise, finalised yesterday (20th November), aims to secure approval of Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s proposed nominees in a vote scheduled for next week. As part of the agreement, Hungarian member of the EPP Olivér Várhelyi was nominated as commissioner for health and animal welfare. However, the European Parliament requested adjustments to his responsibilities, particularly the removal of oversight for health preparedness and sexual and reproductive health rights, following concerns raised during his parliamentary hearing. His competencies include food and animal welfare, as well as other health-related areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices and tobacco legislation.
21st November 2024: EU: Italy and Romania have issued a joint statement raising concerns about the procedure of the discussions on the proposal for a revision of the 2009 Council recommendation on smoke-free environments. The two countries say they regret the failure by the European Commission to present a proper impact assessment for this act as a basis for the Council to properly assess the proposed recommendations, which is also a concern the Spanish Association of Personal Vaporiser Users (ANESVAP) raised last month. Italy and Romania also flag that many of the significant comments and amendments proposed by EU member states have not been adequately considered and included in the text.
21st November 2024: EU: The proposal for a revision of the 2009 Council recommendation on smoke-free environments is scheduled to be approved by the EU Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council on 3rd December. The proposal seeks to extend the existing public usage restrictions to novel inhalable products and to introduce new areas in which their consumption would be prohibited.
21st November 2024: Iceland: The parliament has approved the bill amending the Law on Alcohol and Tobacco Tax to introduce an excise duty on nicotine pouches. The Ministry of Finance’s proposal initially sought to introduce a flat tax rate of ISK30 (€0.21) per g. However, after going through several amendments in the parliament, the rates have been changed to adopt a tax scheme based on the nicotine concentration of the product. Nicotine pouches containing between 1 mg/g and 8 mg/g of nicotine will be taxed at ISK8 (€0.05) per g of product; pouches containing between 8.1 mg/g and 12 mg/g of nicotine will be taxed at ISK12 (€0.08) per g of product; pouches containing between 12.1 mg/g and 16 mg/g of nicotine will be taxed at ISK15 (€0.10) per g of product; and pouches containing between 16.1 mg/g and 20 mg/g of nicotine will be taxed at ISK20 (€0.14) per g of product. Pouches containing more than 20 mg/g of nicotine cannot be sold in Iceland.
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.

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