Almost 19,000 Europeans contacted the European Commission to comment on the new tax proposal for smokeless nicotine products. Around 5,000 of these came from Sweden.
Now, various interest groups are accusing tobacco companies of being behind a campaign to influence politics - a claim that makes the non-profit organisation Snusarnas Riksförbund go on the offence.
”They accuse volunteer Swedes of being bought or netbots. As a consumer, it's like a punch in the stomach to hear that,” says chairman Samuel Lundell.
As Vejpkollen previously revealed, the reaction to the European Commission's planned taxes on smokeless nicotine products aroused strong reactions. This was particularly evident when the proposal was put up for open comment on the Commission's website.
”18,480 respondents, that's about nine times more than the average for an EU consultation” notes the newspaper Politico.
Did not turn out as planned
However, many of the 19,000 submissions are negative to the proposal and want the European Commission to relate taxes to the risk of harm, rather than equating all nicotine use with smoking. But this message is at odds with the agenda promoted by both the European Commission and the interest groups that pushed the proposal.
”It is clear that the tobacco industry is trying to influence,” lobby organisation Action on Smoking and Health Europe told Politico.
“The language of the tobacco industry”
According to ASH, it is mainly certain words and reasoning that would ”reveal” the sender. The organisation says that arguments about the risks of a black market and harm reduction are typical of the tobacco industry.
Laurent Huber, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health Europe, does not believe that ordinary citizens would understand what these terms mean.
”When you see 7,770 people across Europe spontaneously using exactly the same argument about ’illegal trade’, submitted anonymously during office hours - that's not genuine citizen engagement. It's an example of an organised strategy by industry,” he told Politico and points out that most of the suspicious posts come from countries like Italy, France and Sweden.
Swedish organisations in focus
Vejpkollen, together with the magazine Clearing the Air reviewed the Swedish submissions and noted the involvement of Swedish organisations, including National Snus Association and a number of retailers in the country. Many of them have organised campaigns to encourage their members or customers to comment on the European Commission's proposals.
”Being told that you basically don't exist and that your opinions aren't worth a damn is like a punch in the gut. You wonder what kind of people think like that,” says Samuel Lundell, chairman of the non-profit organisation Snusarnas Riksförbund.
AI help to participate in the debate
For the European Commission's open comment round, the federation used a special section of its website to facilitate the process. In addition to instructions on how to register on the EU website, with email address and other personal details, a AI generator to help members to formulate themselves.
”We work on a completely voluntary basis and cannot do this during working hours. The same goes for our members, of course. But given that the European Commission's proposal will shock the price of nicotine pouches - and ultimately traditional snus - we felt we had to fight. What's more, the Commission is sending out a completely wrong message about the risks of snus and e-cigarettes, and they shouldn't get away with it so easily,” said Samuel Lundell.
Loss of commitment and technical barriers
But Lundell and the board quickly realised that the registration process alone was killing member engagement.
”To then formulate a sensible comment became very difficult for many. Maybe not everyone is so well-read and just wants to sniff in peace. Others are mostly angry with the EU in general. With the AI generator, I think we opened a lot of doors to increase and especially focus the engagement. However, we set a limit of three text generations per person to avoid overloading the server.”
According to Mr Lundell's own estimates, between 1,000 and 2,000 people have used the website to comment on the EU's tax proposals via the Swedish Snus Association. However, they do not keep statistics on how the AI tool itself has been used.
”And because each AI proposal is unique, it's impossible to track. But that's not the idea either - it's a tool to get started and add your own thoughts, nothing more.”
”Harm minimisation” a Swedish matter of course
At the same time, Samuel Lundell believes that those who criticise the comments on ”harm reduction” and similar phrases have not really understood how important snus - and now also nicotine pouches - are for ordinary Swedes.
”Although not everyone who uses snus thinks about it all the time, concepts such as harm reduction and the recognition of the role of snus in smoking cessation are very well established here in Sweden. My advice is to listen to those of us who actually know what it's all about before making stupid political decisions,” he says.
Snus company: ”Customers want transparency”
He is joined by Markus Lindblad, Head of Communications at Haypp Group, who runs Snusbolaget - Sweden's largest retailer of smokeless nicotine products such as snus and nicotine pouches, and more recently e-cigarettes.
The snus company has for several years paid attention to their customers on what is happening in the EU. Once the tax proposal came, it went out to its customers and asked them to act.
”We have noticed that many people are keen to get involved in this issue and of course we want to be open to customers when changes occur in the market. This was just one example of that,” he told Vejpkollen.
Past reactions to nicotine restrictions
Markus Lindblad says that customers have also reacted in the past, for example when a government inquiry proposed setting what many consider to be an unrealistically low nicotine ceiling for snus and nicotine pouches (12 mg/g).
”Our customers sent nearly 750 letters to the Minister of Public Health, sharing their own experiences with snus and nicotine pouches. A very large majority of our customers are former smokers, and for them strong snus has been very important in keeping them smoke-free,” he says.
Strong public engagement
He also points out that closer 30 000 Swedes recently signed a petition to protect both snus and nicotine pouches in the face of the upcoming EU taxes - an effort that was later submitted to the responsible ministers.
”The commitment is very high here in Sweden. Almost 20 per cent of the population either use snus or vejpar, and most of these are former smokers. So it's not surprising that many people want to have their say on a proposal that would increase the price of a can by almost 50% - and only because the Commission has decided that snus and vejp should be equated with smoking,” says Markus Lindblad.
Only one per cent used ready-made formulations
The snus company campaign against the European Commission's proposal in practice meant sending out a newsletter inviting people to write a personal story. It also provided three different phrases that those who wanted to could use as inspiration. One of these was the phrase:
”Smoke-free products, which are significantly less harmful to health than cigarettes, should reasonably be taxed much lower than cigarettes. In Sweden, products are taxed based on their relative harmfulness. This should also apply in the EU.”
Vejpkollen, in co-operation with the reviewing magazine Clearing the Air analysed the Swedish responses. There were 4,758 responses in total, and the Snus Company's proposed phrase was used in 48 comments - just over 1 per cent.
”To call us bottoms is to go too far”
Both Markus Lindblad and Samuel Lundell sees the criticism of the comments and their messages as part of the efforts of some advocacy organisations to influence public opinion on smoke-free nicotine products.
”But to accuse ordinary people of being bottoms or completely controlled by the tobacco industry is to cross the line. Fortunately, we have politicians in Sweden who meet snus users - and more recently vejp users - on a daily basis and see the importance of these products in keeping us smoke-free. If it wasn't for that everyday contact, these stupid campaigns would probably have had a bigger impact. But I realise that things are very different in other parts of Europe,” says Samuel Lundell.
