Two weeks after banning disposable e-cigarettes, France notified the European Commission it would ban the sale of nicotine pouches as well, joining countries that include Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg.
“The French decree follows in the footsteps of the decision on 13 February to ban disposable e-cigarettes,” a tobacco industry source told Euractiv. “French regulators have been monitoring developments in the new tobacco products sector. Health authorities became alarmed, and the government decided to activate the legislative levers available to it.”
With an expected annual growth rate of 6.2%, the European nicotine pouch market could reach €1.06 billion by 2030. Europe’s 2014 Tobacco Products Directive covered all traditional tobacco-containing products and included provisions for new tobacco products, however, nicotine pouches contain no tobacco, and thus remain unregulated at the EU level.
Tobacco and nicotine products are not on the EU’s agenda for 2025, however, the Polish Presidency Council (which sits atop the Commission along with Denmark and Cyprus until June) is looking to move forward with discussions for taxing alternative tobacco products and possibly revising the Tobacco Products Directive.
