EU targets nicotine pouches – plans to shock‑hike Swedish tax by around 500 percent

The European Commission has set its sights on nicotine pouches. In a new proposal on EU‑wide tobacco taxation, Brussels wants to force Sweden to raise the tax on nicotine pouches by around 500 percent – despite the products being tobacco‑free and despite Sweden having the lowest smoking rate in the EU. 

The EU’s new Tobacco Taxation Directive is not a technical adjustment. It is a frontal attack on smoke‑free nicotine products – and on Sweden’s successful harm‑reduction model. 

For the first time, nicotine pouches are singled out as a product category subject to binding EU minimum excise levels. For Sweden, this means that the current tax of SEK 207 per kilo is no longer acceptable. Instead, the EU floor is set at roughly SEK 1,200 per kilo. 

The result is a tax increase of nearly 500 percent. 

“This is nothing less than a political assault on both consumers and common sense. The EU is choosing to punish the very product that has actually helped people move away from cigarettes,” says Markus Lindblad. 

Nicotine demonised – facts ignored 

The European Commission makes no meaningful distinction between smoking and smoke-free alternatives. Instead, nicotine itself is treated as the problem. Nicotine pouches, which contain no tobacco and involve no combustion, are lumped together with tobacco products for tax purposes. 

“This is ideology, not public health. The EU knows perfectly well that nicotine pouches are not cigarettes – yet taxes them as if they were. That’s intellectually dishonest,” Lindblad says. 

Sweden punished for succeeding 

For decades, Sweden has gone its own way on nicotine policy – with measurable results. The lowest smoking rate in the EU, fewer smoking‑related diseases, and a broad range of smoke‑free alternatives for consumers. 

Instead of learning from this, the EU chooses to crack down on it. 

“The message from Brussels is clear, it doesn’t matter if something works. Everyone must be forced into the same mould. This is centralisation at the expense of public health,” says Lindblad. 

Wrong signals, real consequences 

By taxing nicotine pouches out of reach, the EU risks achieving the opposite of what it claims to want. More expensive smoke‑free alternatives make cigarettes relatively more attractive – especially for price‑sensitive users. 

“The EU says it wants to reduce smoking, yet is now pushing a policy that risks locking people into cigarettes. That’s both cynical and dangerous,” Lindblad says. 

What happens next? 

The proposal has not yet been formally adopted, but the process is already well advanced. Unless it is stopped or significantly amended, the massive tax hike could become reality within a few years. 

That the European Commission describes this as an increase of “only” a few hundred percent shows just how far removed it is from the reality faced by everyday users. 

For Pouch Patrol, the conclusion is clear: 

This is not public health. It is nicotine moralism, centralisation – and a direct threat to smoke‑free alternatives.