Safer Nicotine 2025
| No. | Country | Tax (15) | Vaping ban (30) | Flavour ban (15) | Promotion (10) | Disposable vapes (10) | Heated tobacco (10) | Oral nicotine Puches (5), snus (5) | Total (100) |
|---|
Least free
Less free
Freest
Criteria
The safer nicotine category encompasses regulation of e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, snus and heated tobacco, all of which are proven to be less hazardous to health than combustible tobacco. Nanny state regulation of e-cigarettes includes flavour bans (up to 15 points), taxes (up to 15 points), vaping bans (up to 30 points), disposable vape bans (10 points) and promotion (up to 10 points). The latter category consists of advertising restrictions, display bans and plain packaging. The oral nicotine category consists of restrictions on the sale of snus and nicotine pouches (up to 5 points for each). Up to 10 points are awarded for taxes or bans on heated tobacco.
Flavour ban
Full prohibition of all non-tobacco flavours gets 15 points. If menthol is excluded, 13 points. If other flavours are excluded, fewer points are given although this has not happened in practice yet.
Promotion
Up to 5 points are awarded according to the size and scope of advertising restrictions. All EU countries have to ban any form of e-cigarette advertising that can cross borders and therefore score at least 3 points. A further 5 points are awarded for retail display bans and plain packaging of vape products.
Tax
Countries which place a specific tax on e-cigarettes (in addition to standard sales tax) score up to 15 points. Points are awarded according to the size of the tax as a proportion of the highest tax (adjusted for purchasing power), with the highest tax jurisdiction scoring 15. Countries which ban the sale of e-cigarettes also get 15 points.
Vaping ban
Up to 30 points are awarded for bans and restrictions on e-cigarette use (vaping) in public places. In countries where vaping is classed as smoking for the purpose of smoking bans, the score from the smoking ban subcategory in the tobacco index is used.
Oral nicotine
Bans on snus (standard in the EU outside Sweden) get 5 points. Bans, flavour bans or major limitations on nicotine strength get up to 5 points.
Heated tobacco tax
As with e-cigarette taxation, the country with the highest tax gets the maximum points (10). Other countries are given up to 10 points based on their tax as a proportion of the highest tax (adjusted for purchasing power). If the sale of heated tobacco products is banned entirely, the country gets 10 points.