Banning online sales and restricting flavours to artificial tobacco and menthol only. This is what the Netherlands, together with Belgium and Latvia, wants to introduce for nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes at EU level. It is now criticising the European Commission, together with various stakeholders, for not prioritising the issue of the Tobacco Products Directive in 2025.
The issue of nicotine pouches and future regulation of e-cigarettes is unlikely to be a priority in 2025. This is clear since the European Commission does not even mention a revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) in its declaration for the financial year. Nevertheless, extensive lobbying efforts are underway, not least from groups close to the anti-tobacco movement and groups funded by various companies in the pharmaceutical sector.
"A serious health risk"
According to the ESMO organisation (European Society for Medical Oncology) The organisation argues that new nicotine products such as e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products pose a "serious health risk" and that the delayed revision of the Tobacco Products Directive is an obstacle to reducing smoking in the EU. Among other things, the organisation wants to ban disposable models and introduce a ban on online sales of all nicotine products.
Flavour ban for nicotine pouches
Similar tones are heard from The Netherlands, which together with Belgium and Latvia is now calling on the Commission to introduce stricter regulations as soon as possible. And these regulations should also apply to nicotine pouches, a product that is currently only regulated locally, not at EU level. In an open letter to the Commission, Euroactiv, a magazine that monitors EU policy, the Netherlands has made a number of suggestions on how to deal with nicotine pouches.
"The Commission should introduce strong restrictions on flavourings, a nicotine ceiling and plain packaging requirements," the Dutch health minister wrote in her letter, according to Euroactiv.
Already have stricter rules
The Netherlands, Belgium and Latvia are the countries that currently have the most extensive EU restrictions on so-called 'novel' nicotine products. In the Netherlands, for example, nicotine pouches are banned and e-liquids can only be flavoured with some kind of artificial tobacco. Belgium recently banned vaping and nicotine pouches altogether. The official motive in all cases has been to reduce use among young people and non-smokers.
More young people vejpar despite various bans
Denmark, which recently introduced similar flavour bans and 'plain packaging' for e-cigarettes, is now moving towards similar restrictions for nicotine pouches. In Denmark, online sales of nicotine products across borders are also prohibited.
But according to Jeanett Andersen, Communications Manager at Gejser, one of the major retailers of e-cigarettes in Denmark, the bans have proved to be directly counterproductive, especially in terms of youth use.
"It is now visible in the statistics. Since the introduction of the flavour ban, the use of e-cigarettes among young people (15-29 years old) has increased from 4 % to 12 %. Politicians' bans are not working, and more bans will not work better" she tells Vejpkollen.
