Nicotine pouches: government turns to Europe to obtain ban

The French government has referred its draft decree to the European Commission to ban nicotine pouches. The Commission will have three months to respond to these proposals, which the government considers to be "justified, necessary and proportionate to achieve the objective of protecting public health."

Former Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq had announcement at the end of October 2024, its wish to ban nicotine pouches, citing marketing strategies targeting young people, and an increase in calls to poison control centers for acute, sometimes severe nicotine syndromes.

The European Commission's response is expected within three months.

The draft decree proposes to prohibit "the production, manufacture, transport, import, export, possession, offer, transfer, acquisition, distribution and use of products for oral use containing nicotine [...] on the national territory". Falling within the framework of "technical barriers to trade" (TBT), such a draft regulation, notified to the European Commission, introduces a three-month standstill period, at the end of which the Commission will have to make its decision. If the European institutions give the green light, the decree will enter into force six months after its publication.

Marketing already outside any regulatory framework

In a recent note, the Council of State indicates that the ban on nicotine pouches is not necessary. More specifically, the Council of State, recalling that nicotine legally belongs to the category of poisonous substances, its delivery "can in principle only be carried out in a pharmacy, on the basis of a prescription from a doctor or a health professional". In other words, the Council of State, noting the widespread marketing of nicotine pouches containing "between 6 and 20 mg of nicotine", outside of pharmacies, first calls on the public authorities to enforce the regulations in force. The position of the Council of State thus echoes that of the National Committee against Smoking (CNCT), which considers that these products are marketed illegally. Not having a marketing authorization and not belonging to the category of exceptions concerning authorized nicotine products, the marketing of nicotine pouches is therefore considered illegal by the CNCT, which filed a complaint for trafficking in poisonous substances. In a study conducted with the National Institute of Consumption – 60 Million Consumers, the CNCT had also warned of the presence of heavy metals, arsenic and sweeteners in all of the nicotine sachets analyzed.

Tobacco sellers and industry oppose proposed ban

The tobacco industry's reaction was swift. Faced with the ban on disposable electronic cigarettes, manufacturers focused part of their marketing strategy on the (illegal) marketing and promotion of nicotine pouches. For several months, the Confédération des buralistes has been conducting a public relations operation with a view to obtaining a monopoly on the sale of these products from the public authorities. The announcement of a ban on nicotine pouches and the publication of the draft decree have aroused hostility among representatives of the profession. Thus, in an article published in the JDD on February 22, Philippe Coy, president of the Confédération des buralistes, denounces the government's "incomprehensible and unjustified about-face" and warns of the "certain porosity of the public authorities to the mendacious and unfounded arguments of certain associations that are only looking for media and political brilliance."[1]. As reported by the media Euractiv, the tobacco industry is also lobbying at the European level, in order to obtain taxation of nicotine pouches preferable to a Community ban. While Poland wants to relaunch the debate on the taxation of new products, the Estonian Minister of Health believes that the fight against smoking necessarily implies a fight against nicotine consumption: "we don't just need a generation without tobacco, we need a generation without nicotine."[2].

FT

[1] Sunday newspaper, Nicotine sachets: the government's absurd about-face, 02/22/2025, (accessed 02/26/2025)

[2] Euractiv, Polish EU Presidency to rekindle alternative tobacco tax debate, 02/25/2025, (accessed 02/26/2025)