Traditionally the most liberal Scandinavian country, Denmark continues to perform quite well in this year’s Nanny State Index, but is about to take a turn for the worse. Vapers have already been hit with a retail display ban for e-cigarettes and a total ban on e-cigarette advertising. Plain packaging for e-cigarettes is planned for July 2021. Worst of all, a ban on all vape juice flavours apart from tobacco and menthol is planned for August 2022.

There is currently no excise tax on e-cigarette fluid, but one is planned for July 2022. E-cigarettes were classified as medical products in Denmark until 2016 and unavailable to the public, but this changed in May 2016 when e-cigarettes and vaping fluids were 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.

A new tobacco control law was unveiled in December 2019, with plans to introduce plain packaging in July 2021, extend the smoking ban and raise tobacco taxes. A retail display ban was introduced in January 2021 and the law is written in such a way that it amounts to a de facto ban on cigarette vending machines. Loose snus, which escaped earlier EU laws, was banned in January 2016.

The fresh wave of nanny statism in Denmark was still largely in the planning stages in March 2021 (the cut off date for this year’s index) and so its score remains relatively strong. At the time of writing, the Danes still had more tolerant smoking laws and lower taxes on beer, spirits and tobacco than its neighbours to the north, although there has been a big increase in wine duty in the last two years. Most forms of alcohol marketing are legal and Denmark is the only Nordic country that does not have a statutory closing time for bars.

For the time being, at least, smoking is less restricted than in most EU countries and tobacco duty is relatively low once adjusted for incomes. Although smoking is generally prohibited indoors, there is an exemption for small pubs. Ventilated smoking rooms are permitted in restaurants and workplaces. Heated tobacco is taxed at the same rate as coarse tobacco: 1,301 DKK per kilogram (€175).

Denmark’s experiment with a ‘fat tax’ in 2012-13 was a notorious disaster and was swiftly repealed along with a tax on sugary drinks.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.