Dutch vape flavour ban – a policy fail!

The vape flavour ban in the Netherlands seems to have spectacularly backfired, with 10% of vapers having returned to smoking and the rest finding ways around the ban.

In 2023, the Dutch government introduced a ban on vape flavours and then introduced further restrictions – capping the total number of compounds that can be used to create flavoured e-liquids to 16.  They also banned online sales

Now, a survey by Dutch consumer group Acvoda has found that 10% of vapers have returned to smoking, and 85% said they circumvent the ban by either crossing the border to get what they want, ordering online or via social media or making the flavoured e-liquid themselves.  Only 2% of respondents said that they switched to tobacco flavoured vapes – the only flavour that you can now legally buy in the country.

The government says that the ban was introduced to curb youth vaping. But in reality, it is only adult consumers who are impacted. Vape flavours play a crucial role in helping smokers quit.  Sweet, non-tobacco flavours help differentiate smoking from vaping and are associated with higher quit rates.

More than 90% of respondents in the survey (the average age of which was 52) said that they had experienced an immediate improvement in health after switching to the e-cigarette after decades of smoking. One vaper stated that he “got his life back” as a result of switching to e-cigarettes. Because of smoking, he had problems with his heart and was bedridden but after switching to e-cigarettes he was able to go out again within two weeks and now he is super fit and an avid sportsman.

‘This policy of prohibition has failed,’ says Markus Lindblad, Head of Communications at Pouch Patrol. ‘Making vapes that taste like cigarettes makes no sense. This anti-smoking, anti-vaping policy is clearly pushing people back to smoking, a policy fail, if there ever was one!’ he said.