Update 12/06/2025: The leaked impact assessment is available to download here
The European Commission is planning to require massive tax hikes on vapes, pouches and heated tobacco products like iQOS, according to a leaked impact assessment seen by Clearing the Air.
Under the planned measures, which Clearing the Air understands is to be announced before the EU’s summer break in August, the price of a 10ml bottle of e-liquid would increase by at least €3,60 over four years. This would be halved for lower strength liquids, penalising the heaviest smokers trying to quit.
The Commission claims it’s all about health: 700,000 tobacco deaths a year, a “Tobacco-Free Generation” goal, and cancer prevention.
But behind the smoke screen of public health, officials admit the new taxes would bring in billions in fresh revenue — while also hitting small vape shops, cross-border shoppers, and Europe’s poorest smokers hardest.
“Europe seems to think that punishing smokers trying to quit is a good way to shore up the public finances” said Fred Roeder of the Consumer Choice Center (the CCC provides an unrestricted operating grant to Clearing the Air).
Nicotine pouches would also be hit hard, with the proposed duty topping 50% of the current retail price. That means the pouches that cost you €5 today will cost at least €7.50. And heated tobacco products, like PMI’s iQOS, would be hit by a 55% minimum tax.
But nicotine replacement therapy like patches and gum would remain exempt, ensuring that the pharmaceutical industry gets to keep its longstanding tax advantages for prescription products.
The proposal came after 15 EU Member States wrote to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanding fresh measures.
The call for action comes from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. They argue that the current law isn’t fit for a world where safer nicotine products are widely available.
In total, the Commission believes that taxes on safer nicotine products would bring in just under five billion Euros in additional taxes.
“Smoking rates are highest among low-income Europeans, who are also the least able to afford higher prices” said Michael Landl, of the World Vaper Alliance.
“This is not just bad policy, it’s a public health disaster giving way to social injustice. The Commission is ignoring science, punishing the poor, and giving anti-EU voices exactly what they want: proof that Brussels is out of touch and doesn’t care about ordinary people”.
