E-cigarettes in Europe

Slovenia: A 30-day public consultation on a Ministry of Health bill to ban the sale of non-tobacco-flavoured vaping products ends today. The bill would also bring nicotine-free vaping products under the Tobacco Law, making them subject to the same product restrictions and notification requirements as tobacco products.

Germany: The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has updated the list of notified e-cigarette products, which now contains 310,464 vapour products. Only products notified at least six months ago are listed.

Germany: Customs officers have have seized 4.4 litres of untaxed e-liquids during an inspection in Potsdam, near Berlin. They found seven out of ten retailers failed to comply with the current Tobacco Tax Law. E-liquids have been taxed since 1st July 2022 and the transitional period allowing the sale of old stock ended on 12th February 2023.

Netherlands: Figures from the national statistical office, Statistics Netherlands, show a significant increase in e-cigarette use among young people in 2022 compared to 2021. The biggest rise was in the 16-20 age group, where reported use of e-cigarettes went from 2.5% in 2021 to 8.8% in 2022, an increase of 252%. Among the 20-30 age group, it went up by 247% from 1.7% in 2021 to 5.9% in 2022. In the youngest group in which vaping was reported, 12-16 years, the number of e-cigarette users more than doubled from 0.8% in 2021 to 1.7% in 2022.

Switzerland: A study conducted last year by the Swiss Addiction Foundation, funded by the Federal Office of Public Health, and involving 9,345 students found 7% of girls and 8% of boys aged 15 had used e-cigarettes in the preceding 30 days. The foundation is urging the government to take measures on advertising, sales, price, packaging and flavours.