Estonia has proposed tightening its vape flavour ban and imposing a 4mg per gram nicotine limit on pouches under sweeping new rules covering smoke-free nicotine products.
The draft legislation would restrict vapes and nicotine pouches to tobacco and menthol flavours made from a government-approved list of ingredients. Sweet, fruit and other flavours would be prohibited.
The nicotine cap would apply to pouches and a wider range of products, including nicotine strips, sprays, heated nicotine sticks and nicotine-containing heated herbal sticks. Products and packaging designed in ways that increase their appeal to children or young people would also be banned.
The proposal completed an initial consultation with government departments and interested organisations on July 28. It must still pass through Estonia’s legislative process before becoming law.
If approved, the new flavour and nicotine composition rules are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2028, giving manufacturers time to change their products and retailers time to sell existing stock.
Existing flavour rules would be tightened
Estonian law already prohibits flavourings in nicotine-containing and nicotine-free e-liquids, apart from tobacco and menthol.
However, the government says those broad categories have allowed manufacturers to use numerous combinations of chemicals while still describing their products as tobacco or menthol flavoured. This has led to disputes between companies and the country’s Health Board over which ingredients comply with the law.
The new system would replace that flexibility with a fixed list of permitted substances.
A draft ministerial regulation names 16 ingredients that could be used to produce a tobacco flavour and eight permitted menthol ingredients, including several forms of menthol, peppermint oil and spearmint extract.
Government data suggests only 22 per cent of the vape products currently on the Estonian market already meet the proposed requirements. Some products would therefore need to be reformulated or withdrawn.
The explanatory document says that 26 of the 33 notifications involving vape liquids submitted during 2025 contained ingredients considered problematic by the Health Board.
Pouch strength would fall sharply
The proposed nicotine pouch limit is set as a concentration of 4mg for every gram of pouch mixture, rather than as the total amount of nicotine in each pouch. The quantity delivered by an individual pouch would therefore depend on its weight.
The government says it based the limit on rules introduced in neighbouring Latvia and wants to prevent very high-strength products from reaching the market.
As an example, the explanatory document points to a passion fruit pouch sold in Estonia containing 50mg of nicotine per gram. That concentration is 12.5 times the proposed limit.
In addition to the strength limit, pouches and other affected nicotine products would be prohibited from containing flavours other than tobacco or menthol.
The bill would also ban vitamins, caffeine, taurine and other stimulants, along with ingredients that facilitate nicotine absorption or give the impression that a product has health benefits.
These restrictions could remove a large part of the current nicotine pouch range from legal sale. The draft does not contain an assessment of how the 4mg/g limit might affect adult smokers who use stronger products as substitutes for cigarettes.
Government focuses on youth appeal
Estonia’s government says the central aim is to reduce nicotine use among children and young people.
Research cited in the proposal found that 57 per cent of young respondents who used vapes said pleasant flavours were a reason for choosing them. Official figures also show that 29.2 per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds surveyed in 2021 and 2022 had tried a vape.
Among people aged 16 to 65, 6.4 per cent reported using nicotine-containing vapes every day in Estonia’s 2024 adult health behaviour survey, while 11.8 per cent used them at least several times a month.
Daily cigarette smoking has continued to decline. It fell to 13.2 per cent of 16 to 64-year-olds in 2024, compared with 26 per cent a decade earlier, according to Estonia’s National Institute for Health Development. The institute said alternative nicotine use had risen particularly quickly among younger groups.
Online ordering targeted
The wider bill would also strengthen Estonia’s restrictions on internet and postal sales.
It would make ordering or selling tobacco and related nicotine products through domestic or cross-border distance sales an offence. Individuals could face fines of up to 300 penalty units, while companies could be fined as much as €200,000.
Other provisions would require public officials, members of parliament and local councillors to disclose communications with tobacco industry lobbyists. Details including the date, subject and participants would be published at least quarterly and retained for three years.
The measures form one of the broadest proposed overhauls of Estonia’s nicotine rules in recent years. The immediate effect, should they pass, would be a smaller range of legal vape ingredients and nicotine pouches with concentrations far below many products now on sale.
