With relaxed licensing laws, Spain has some of the lowest rates of tax on beer and spirits and, as in most southern European countries, there is no duty on wine. Some local councils have banned happy hours and/or bulk buys, but there are no national prohibition on either.

Once adjusted for income, Spain’s cigarette taxes are below average for an EU country and there is no tax on e-cigarette fluid. In recent years, there has been talk from the health minister about introducing plain packaging, banning smoking on beaches, banning e-cigarette advertisements and taxing vape juice. Fortunately, nothing has come of this yet. Spain already has an extensive workplace smoking ban (since 2005) and a total ban on smoking in bars and restaurants (since 2011). Smoking is banned in a few outdoor areas, including schools, hospitals and playgrounds.

Vaping is banned in various public places, such as in schools and on public transport, but it is left to the owner’s discretion in private workplaces, bars and restaurants. Cross-border sales of e-cigarette fluid is banned.

Spain is surprisingly uptight about alcohol advertising. Beer and wine can only be advertised after 8.30pm and until recently there was a total ban on spirits being advertised on television. This was relaxed slightly in 2022 but such commercials can still only be shown between 1am and 5am. Billboards for spirits cannot be shown in places where alcohol consumption is not permitted. This covers a lot of ground since 10 out of 17 Spanish regions ban drinking outdoors. The drink-driving limit was reduced to 0.2 g/l in January 2025.

In December 2016, the Spanish government announced that it would be introducing a tax on soft drinks to help reduce the national deficit, but the government later shelved the idea because it did not want to hurt the working class. Instead, it raised VAT on sugary (and artificially sweetened) drinks from 10 per cent to the standard rate of 21 per cent in 2021. The region of Catalonia has had real sugar tax since May 2018. The rate is two tiered with drinks containing 5 to 8 grams of sugar per 100ml taxed at €0.08 per litre while drinks which have more than 8 grams of sugar per 100ml are taxed at €0.12 per litre.

Although Spain performs relatively well, there are dark clouds on the horizon. A two-tier tax on vape juice was introduced in January 2025, with liquids containing less than 15 mg of nicotine taxed at €0.15/ml and higher strength fluids taxed at €0.20. Worse still, a draft Royal Decree has proposed a limit of 0.99 mg of nicotine in pouches, amounting to a de facto ban of all existing products. The same Decree proposes a ban on e-cigarette flavours, except tobacco flavour, which would bring about a collapse of the vaping market.

With thanks to Fundación para el Avance de la Libertad