Luxembourg is one of the more liberal places in the Nanny State Index and can always be found towards the bottom of the league table. Adjusted for income, it has the lowest taxes on alcohol and cigarettes of any of the 29 countries. It has no wine duty, no sugar tax and nicotine pouches are legal. The personal cultivation and consumption of cannabis has been legal since July 2023.

There is no retail display ban for tobacco, no plain packaging and no minimum pricing for alcohol. Restrictions on alcohol advertising are relatively trivial. It is one of eleven countries in the index that scores a perfect zero for food and soft drink regulation.

So what’s not to like? Luxembourg’s Achilles’ heel is its negative attitude towards safer nicotine products. Heated tobacco has never been licensed for sale and is therefore de facto banned. Luxembourg’s former health minister, Lydia Mutsch, took a dim view of vaping, believing it to be a gateway to smoking. Luxembourg bans e-cigarette advertising everywhere except at point of sale and cross-border sales are illegal. Vaping is banned everywhere smoking is banned although, fortunately, the country’s smoking ban has plenty of exemptions. In October 2024, a vape tax was introduced at the relatively affordable level of €0.12 per ml.

Surprisingly, Luxembourg has a national closing time of 1am for drinking establishments, although owners can apply to open until 3am. In August 2017, a ban was introduced on smoking in vehicles if a child under 12 years is a passenger, and smoking is banned in and around children’s playgrounds.

With thanks to Bill Wirtz at the Consumer Choice Center