Denmark - Tobacco Reporter

Copenhagen Inspections Reveal Widespread Sale of Illicit Products

Authorities in Denmark said they found illegal tobacco, nicotine, and vape items for sale in 21 out of 22 convenience stores in Copenhagen during a recent round of inspections (called “control visits”) with items reportedly hidden behind paneling, among parcels, behind shelves, and in used chocolate boxes. The products found during the raids are banned because they do not comply with Danish sales laws or because duty had not been paid on them, the Health Ministry said.

“It makes me angry that so many convenience stores are breaking the law and selling illegal nicotine products. It’s completely unacceptable,” Health Minister Sophie Løhde said. “They are gambling with the health of children and young people when they sell illegal vapes or e-cigarettes that taste like candy but are filled with high amounts of nicotine and can also contain narcotic substances. This has to be stopped.”

Eighteen of the violators have been fined by at least one authority, while two stores were banned from selling food, according to the ministry.

“The large-scale operation by authorities in Copenhagen kiosks has revealed massive problems and rule-breaking,” Tax Minister Rasmus Stoklund said. “This is completely unfair on the rest of us. It must be stopped, and we need to crack down hard on people who break the rules.”

March 18, 2025

‘Pouch Nicotine Limits will Drive Users to Smoking’

The Tholos Foundation released exclusive new research from international polling firm IPSOS on how Danish consumers would react if proposals to limit nicotine in nicotine pouches were implemented. In September 2024 the Danish Government published a “Draft Order on nicotine content limits in tobacco substitutes,”’ which proposed to introduce a limit of 9 mg per pouch.

Findings of the poll include that three quarters of consumers use nicotine pouches for health-related reasons, primarily to reduce or quit smoking. Since the introduction of nicotine pouches to Denmark in 2018, smoking rates have fallen from 19 percent to 14 percent in 2023, and the research shows close to 20 percent of current pouch users would return to smoking if this ban was implemented.

The poll also found that enacting such a proposal would lead to an explosion of black market sales, with fifty percent of consumers expecting to purchase illegally. The poll also found the vast majority of consumers do not support the proposed nicotine limit.

“The evidence is clear: nicotine pouches help consumers quit smoking and reduce harm. The proposed nicotine limit is a disaster for public health which will increase smoking rates, and create a huge black market,” said Tim Andrews, Tholos’ director of consumer issues.

“Eighty percent of consumers know nicotine pouches are helpful in reducing smoking rates, and believe governments should support less harmful alternatives to smoking – a powerful voting block. This is a clear sign to the government they should follow international best practices through introducing smart regulations based on research and evidence, which restrict sales to minors and prevent underaged experimentation, while still allowing adults the ability to quit smoking.”

In 2022 the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment conducted the world’s most comprehensive research into nicotine pouches, confirming their benefits in reducing health risks compared to smoking, and recommended regulation based around an optimal level of nicotine of 16.6mg per pouch.

November 21, 2024

Cigarette Sales Down in Denmark

Danish smokers bought 3.85 billion cigarettes in 2023, down 5.1 percent from 2022, according to the country’s statistics agency. This corresponds to 804 cigarettes per adult Dane, compared with 854 in the previous year.

Cigarette sales in Denmark started falling in 2018 and have declined by 32 percent since that year.

The sale of smoking tobacco, which includes loose tobacco for pipes and roll-your-own cigarettes, dropped from 378 tons in 2022 to 320 tons in 2023.

Sales of cigars and cigarillos remained unchanged at 22 million pieces in 2023

June 14, 2024

Price Hikes Drive Purchases Abroad

Consecutive price hikes appear to have prompted Danish smokers to purchase more cigarettes abroad, reports The Local.

In 2019, Danish smokers purchased 250 million cigarettes in shops across the border. By 2022, that number increased to 700 million, according to the Ministry of Taxation. That reflects a rise in spending from DKR410 million ($60.34 million) to DKR1.15 billion.

The figures coincide with the rise in price of cigarettes in Denmark. Between 2020 and 2022, the price of a pack of cigarettes increased from DKR40 to DKR60.

“The Ministry of Taxation’s figures speak for themselves,” Janick Nytoft, managing director of The Cooperative Merchants, an industry organization, was quoted as saying by newswire Ritzau. “You cannot raise taxes in Denmark without increased cross-border trade. Cigarettes bought abroad do not make the Danes healthier, but the treasury and the shops poorer,”

Meanwhile, a 2022 survey of smoking habits, showed that the rise is cigarette prices had not significantly reduced the number of smokers in Denmark.

In 2022, 19 percent of people in Denmark smoked daily or occasionally, compared to 18 percent recorded in 2020. Among 15-19 year olds, smoking incidence actually increased. In 2022, 25 percent of this age group said they smoked daily or occasionally—up from 23 percent in 2022. The same age group also experienced a rise in users of e-cigarettes and smokeless nicotine products.

Health activists said the tax ministry’s numbers proved that the price hikes had been too modest. Mads Lind, chief consultant at the Heart Association, urged the government to increase prices to DKR100 per pack.

In addition to price hikes, Denmark has been debating other measures to reduce the number of smokers. Other proposals include plain packaging, restrictions on product displays and a so-called generational tobacco ban, which would prohibit sales to people born after a certain date.

According to the National Health Authority, around 13,600 people die every year from smoking in Denmark.

July 8, 2023

More Danes Quit Smoking During Covid

Danish smokers bought less tobacco, and more of them quit smoking than usual during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research from the University of Copenhagen that monitored cigarette purchases from the March 2020 lockdown through the end of the year. Those who kept puffing also purchased significantly less tobacco, the study showed.

Among other things, the figures reveal that regular smokers bought 20 percent fewer cigarettes each week than before the pandemic. Meanwhile, the number of those who quit increased by 10 percent from the year prior.

“The big picture is that cigarette consumption fell during the pandemic,” said study author Toke Reinholt Fosgaard, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Food and Resource Economics. “It comes as somewhat of a surprise as one would expect to see people smoking more during a pandemic, a time when people felt worse psychologically and had fewer opportunities to move about. Yet, the opposite occurred.”

Fosgaard attributes the decline in tobacco consumption to the fact that smokers are at greater risk of developing severe Covid symptoms. “For a smoker, the consequences of smoking became more immediate, rather than a consequence in old age, as smokers suffer more severe cases of Covid,” he said.

August 31, 2022

Denmark to Consider Sales Ban for Those Born After 2010

Denmark is considering a tobacco sales ban for anyone born after 2010, reports The Guardian and Geo News.

“Our hope is that all people born in 2010 and later will never start smoking or using nicotine-based products,” Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said. “If necessary, we are ready to ban the sale (of these products) to this generation by progressively raising the age limit.”

The current age of purchase is 18 years old. The health ministry stated that about 31 percent of 15-year-olds to 29-year-olds smoke.

A Danish Cancer Society poll showed that 64 percent of those surveyed were in favor of the proposed ban, with 67 percent being between the ages of 18 and 34.

Denmark’s proposed ban would be similar to that recently enacted in New Zealand, which will progressively raise the purchase age limit.

March 18, 2022

Tag: Denmark