Traditionally the most liberal Scandinavian country, Denmark has been a disappointment in recent years. Plain packaging for tobacco was introduced in 2021 and was extended to e-cigarettes in 2022. Denmark banned all vape juice flavours apart from tobacco and menthol and then introduced a hefty tax on e-cigarette fluid of 1.5 kroner (€0.20) per ml for up to 12mg/ml of nicotine and 2.5 kroner (€0.34) for more than 12mg/ml of nicotine. Nicotine pouches are legal but heavily taxed.

Vapers had already been hit with a retail display ban for e-cigarettes and a total ban on e-cigarette advertising. Advertisements for nicotine pouches are also banned. A retail display ban for tobacco, vapes and nicotine pouches was introduced in January 2021 and the law was written in such a way that it amounted to a de facto ban on selling these products from vending machines. Loose snus, which escaped earlier EU laws, was banned in January 2016.

E-cigarettes were classified as medical products in Denmark until 2016 and unavailable to the public, but e-cigarettes and vaping fluids were then legalised as consumer products. Vaping has always been permitted in public places (except in children’s areas, in taxis and on public transport), but advertising, promotion and sponsorship of e-cigarette products is banned in all media, but that will change in April 2025 when the smoking ban is extended to vaping.

Taxes on beer, wine and spirits are low by Scandinavian standards but high by any other standard. Most forms of alcohol marketing are legal and Denmark is the only Nordic country that does not have a statutory closing time for bars and a retail monopoly.

Although Denmark has some sensible exemptions in its indoor smoking ban - small pubs can allow smoking and ventilated smoking rooms are permitted in restaurants and workplaces - 85 municipalities have ‘smoke free working hours’ in which public sector workers are not allowed to smoke at all.

Denmark’s experiment with a ‘fat tax’ in 2011-13 was a notorious disaster and was swiftly repealed along with a tax on sugary drinks. However, the Chocolate Tax Act, implemented in January 2020, has since hiked the price of confectionery, chocolate, chewing gum and even some ‘sugar-free' products. A range of products, including chocolate, liquorice, cakes and biscuits are taxed at the rate of 22.08 DKK per kilogram (€3.50) if they contain more than 0.5g of sugar per 100g.

With thanks to Otto Brøns-Petersen and Line Andersen at CEPOS