Market & regulatory data for the vaping sector in Europe

14th March 2025: Italy: A ban on online sales of nicotine-containing products has been in force since 1st January 2025. Nevertheless, the consumer association Altroconsumo has reported that it was still able to purchase these products online without any age verification; none of these products were authorised for sale by the Customs and Monopoly Agency (they did not bear a tax stamp on their packaging); and they all came from abroad, with labels in English, French and Latvian. This highlights the need for effective enforcement and oversight to ensure compliance with the ban and proper age-verification measures.
14th March 2025: Ireland: Bishop Michael Router, leader of the Irish Bishops’ Drugs Initiative, has urged the government to ban the sale of hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) vaping products, press reports. Router was warned that these products cause psychological and physical problems in young people.
14th March 2025: Belgium: Yesterday (13th March), Lara Kotlar, a spokesperson for the Walloon Agency for a Quality of Life (AVIQ) – the federal body competent for all policies relating to health and welfare in Wallonia – was interviewed on the subject of electronic cigarettes. Kotlar said e-cigarettes are not a good way to stop smoking. She argued that e-cigs are harmful, even if the impact is still difficult to measure. She also said aggressive marketing strategies, colourful packaging, and flavours encourage the use of e-cigarettes, which can then lead vapers to start smoking conventional cigarettes later on. The proof of the harmful impact of e-cigs, Kotlar said, is that vaping is also prohibited in the same areas where smoking is prohibited.
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. Moreover, the bill plans to ban nicotine pouches.
13th March 2025: Poland: Minister of health, Izabela Leszczyna, said yesterday in an interview that a draft law banning the sale of nicotine-containing disposable e-cigarettes will be considered by the government next Monday, 17th March, press reports.
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: Netherlands: The state secretary for youth, prevention, and sports, Vincent Karremans, has informed the House of Representatives about the government’s action plan to protect young people from vaping. The action plan has three tracks that the government will concentrate on in the short term: combating illegal trade (including better support of enforcement); preventing people from starting to vape (including information about the harmfulness of vapes, reducing the number of points-of-sale, and exploring raising the age limit for all products with nicotine to 21 years); and encouraging people to stop vaping. The government will also continuously investigate possible new measures and implement them.
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: Bulgaria: The Ministry of Interior has announced that access to seven websites advertising and distributing vaping devices and other products containing narcotic substances and their analogues has been suspended by order of the Directorate General for the Prevention of Narcotic Drugs, media reports. We understand this relates to the recent decision of the National Assembly (the parliament), which asked the government to intervene and ban the advertising, supply, and sale of different products, including e-cigarettes, chewing gum, and candies containing narcotic substances, precursors, or their analogues.
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: Belgium: The Federal Public Health Service (FPS) for Heath, Food Chain Safety and the Environment has updated the lists of positive and negative e-cigarette product notifications.

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