Belgium: Ban on tobacco and vaping product stalls in 2025
July 17, 2024
Par: National Committee Against Smoking
Dernière mise à jour: August 6, 2024
Temps de lecture: 3 minutes
As of 1 April 2025, tobacco and vaping products will no longer be visible on store shelves in Belgium. This decision will affect all points of sale, including supermarkets, newsagents, petrol stations and duty-free shops.
The display ban means that products can no longer be visible to customers in places of sale. This measure will apply to tobacco products and their accessories (filters, papers, etc.) as well as vaping products and accessories.
A list containing the brand name and price, presented in a standardized and neutral manner, will be available to the adult consumer when he wishes to have information concerning the product he is considering purchasing. Any other mention will be prohibited, in accordance with the prevailing advertising ban.
Strengthening the national plan against tobacco
This initiative is one of the pillars of the national plan against tobacco launched by the Belgian government in 2022, which aims to achieve a tobacco-free generation by 2032. The aim of this provision is to reduce the appeal of smoking, especially among young people, by limiting the visibility of tobacco and nicotine products in retail spaces. Other emblematic measures concerned new nicotine products such as the ban on nicotine pouches and disposable electronic cigarettes (puffs).
Other provisions include increasing taxes on tobacco to significantly increase its price, strengthening controls on the ban on sales to minors and expanding the areas where smoking is prohibited.
Issues and objectives of the legislation
This comprehensive plan appears all the more important as the prevalence of smoking remains high in the country. According to the Cancer Foundation, 24,% of the Belgian population smokes, with 19,% daily smokers. The country pays a heavy price for smoking: it remains the leading preventable cause of cancer and every day nearly 40 Belgians lose their lives due to smoking, while 300,000 others suffer from tobacco-related diseases. The projections established in 2018 predicted reaching a smoking rate of 10% by 2040, but with the new federal strategy the government intends to achieve this objective by 2028 through this proactive policy.[1]
To achieve this, the effectiveness of all the measures, in particular that of the ban on stalls, is considered by public health actors to be decisive.DT
[1] Sciensano Gisle, L., Demarest, S., & Drieskens, S. (2018). 2018 Health Survey: Tobacco Consumption , Brussels, Belgium National Committee Against Smoking |
