Brussels, 4.6.2026 — Sweden has come out against the EU’s plan to raise taxes on nicotine pouches ahead of this week’s renewed negotiations on the Tobacco Taxation Directive. The proposal would impose higher minimum tax rates on cigarettes and, for the first time, minimum taxes on vaping, nicotine pouches and other less harmful products. Sweden’s finance minister has publicly vowed to stop Brussels from raising taxes on nicotine pouches, stating that other countries do not get to decide Sweden’s nicotine policy and that the government will not allow the EU to “shock-raise” taxes on products that made Sweden smoke-free.

Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said:

“Sweden is doing what the rest of Europe should be doing: defending the products that actually got smokers off cigarettes. Its finance minister is standing up for consumers while Brussels prepares to tax the very alternatives that cut Sweden’s smoking rate to the lowest in the EU. Tax a less harmful product like a cigarette and you remove the reason to switch. Tax nicotine products high enough and you simply hand the market to criminals. That is a gift to organised crime, paid for by smokers who wanted to quit.”

Sweden’s resistance lands at a time when the talks are already in trouble. The Cyprus presidency conceded defeat this week, admitting that, after months of effort, member states could not reach a consensus on the file during its presidency.

International evidence supports Sweden’s position. In Australia, after more than a decade of tax increases exceeding 200 %, official statistics now show roughly 80 % of tobacco and nicotine products consumed in the country are illegal, with nicotine consumption up almost 40 % since 2017. Punitive taxation did not end smoking. It handed the market to criminals. Closer to home, a KPMG report (commissioned by Philip Morris International) found illicit cigarette consumption across 38 European markets grew by 5.9 % in 2025, even as legal consumption fell by 4.1 %.

The World Vapers’ Alliance is calling on member states to follow Sweden’s lead, reject any tax structure that treats less harmful products like cigarettes, apply taxation proportionate to risk, and keep them low enough to incentivise smokers to switch witch to less harmful alternatives.