Sweden has hit out at France’s sweeping ban on nicotine pouches, after it emerged Swedes could face criminal penalties for carrying a smoke-free product that is legal at home while cigarettes remain on sale.
The row has opened a fresh divide in Europe’s approach to nicotine, with Stockholm accusing Paris of going too far by banning not just the sale of pouches, but their import, possession and use.
Under the French rules, a Swedish visitor carrying nicotine pouches legally bought at home could face penalties of up to five years in prison and a €375,000 fine.
Swedish trade minister Benjamin Dousa said the policy amounted to “an attack on the Swedish way of living”.
“It is as if we would prohibit French baguettes or French wine in Sweden,” he told the Financial Times. “It is absurd.”
Sweden is a European outlier on smoking, crediting its low cigarette use to the availability of oral nicotine alternatives such as snus and nicotine pouches.
For critics of France’s ban, the policy highlights a growing contradiction in tobacco control: governments are moving to restrict or outlaw smoke-free nicotine products while combustible cigarettes remain widely available.
France goes further than other EU countries
Nicotine pouches are small sachets placed under the lip to release nicotine. Unlike snus, they do not contain tobacco, meaning they are not covered in the same way by existing EU tobacco rules.
That has left individual member states taking sharply different approaches while Brussels reviews its tobacco control framework.
Belgium and the Netherlands have banned sales, while countries such as Finland have opted for tighter regulation. France has gone further by targeting the whole chain, including import, possession and use.
The French decree, notified to the European Commission in 2025, said the prohibition covers products for oral use containing nicotine in forms including sachets, beads, liquids, chewing gum, lozenges and strips. It said the ban applies to production, manufacture, transport, import, export, possession, acquisition, distribution and use on French territory.
French authorities argue the measure is needed to protect public health, particularly young people, citing concerns over addiction, marketing, flavours and poison centre reports. The same notification said nicotine pouches are currently not regulated at EU level and that France wanted to act “without waiting for the possible revision of the European directives”.
Sweden warns of single market clash
Sweden has a long and politically sensitive history with oral nicotine products. When it joined the EU in 1995, it secured an exemption from the bloc’s ban on the sale of snus, allowing the product to remain legal on the Swedish market.
That exemption does not automatically cover tobacco-free nicotine pouches. But Sweden has become one of Europe’s most prominent examples in debates over tobacco harm reduction, because it has far lower smoking rates than many EU countries.
For Swedish politicians, France’s move has therefore become more than a public health dispute. It is also a test of whether one EU country can criminalise possession of a product bought legally in another.
The European Commission’s own evaluation of the tobacco framework says nicotine pouches are “currently not regulated by the EU tobacco control framework” and that member states have taken differing approaches, from complete bans to nicotine limits, age restrictions, labelling rules and advertising restrictions.
The Commission is reviewing the Tobacco Products Directive, which entered into force in 2014 and has applied since 2016. Its stated aim is to improve the internal market for tobacco and related products while ensuring a high level of health protection.
Court challenge has already narrowed parts of the ban
The French ban has already faced legal challenge. Parts of the decree relating to production and exports have been temporarily suspended by France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat, after a local producer challenged the measure. However, the ban on possession and sale remains in place.
French campaigners say their focus is on commercial supply rather than ordinary users.
“We’re not focused on consumers as much as on producers. It’s the commercialisation of the pouches that’s of real interest,” said François Topart of anti-smoking association CNTC.
But critics say the law still risks criminalising adults using a non-combustible nicotine product, while cigarettes remain legally available.
Massimo Andolina, Philip Morris International’s Europe boss, told the FT the row showed why new EU-wide rules were needed.
“We find ourselves in this senseless situation where nobody is talking about regulating or banning cigarettes anymore, but everyone is talking about banning smoke-free products,” he said.
A bigger fight over harm reduction
The French case highlights a growing divide in European nicotine policy.
Public health campaigners who support bans argue that nicotine pouches risk creating a new generation of nicotine users, particularly because many products are flavoured, discreet and easy to use.
French authorities have also pointed to reported poisonings and concerns over high nicotine levels.
But harm reduction advocates argue that bans may blur the distinction between combustible tobacco and smoke-free products, leaving cigarettes as the default legal option.
