Tobacco sellers in Latvia scramble to find loopholes to circumvent new ban on products and vapes
Latvia’s move to tighten rules on selling tobacco products and substitutes is seeing businesses in the Baltic country scrambling to find loopholes to circumvent the law.
Starting in January 2025, tobacco products, including disposable vapes, refillable e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, cannot be sold to persons under 20.
The new law also states that vaping products should be offered without flavour or with the taste and smell of tobacco only.
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For nicotine pouches, the amount of nicotine they can contain will be reduced.
An investigation from the Latvian public TV, Latvijas Televīzija, revealed that companies that have sold refill cartridges are looking for ways to sell the same products it did before the ban from January when the law kicks in.
For instance, the broadcaster found that a company that sells refill cartridges for vaping products is planning to sell separate bottles of nicotine and flavouring for customers to mix themselves.
"Certainly, after the New Year, there will be alternatives that can be offered to the client, but they will not have such a wide range. Let’s increase the range bit by bit and, after some time, it will definitely be bigger," Jekaterina Smirnova, representative of an e-cigarette company Ecodumas, said.
The country’s Traditional and Smokeless Tobacco Products Association, which has opposed the law since its proposal, questioning its effectiveness, neither denied nor confirmed them.
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"I assume that, similarly to other products, relatives, and friends who travel will be able to bring them from abroad. Like all illegal things, Telegram trading will probably also develop. And it’s hard to stop," Anrijs Matiss, a board member of the organisation, told Latvijas Televīzija.
The association estimates that the state budget will lose around €10 million a year.
The nicotine pouch industry, which is being forced to reduce nicotine content in its products, expects that products will disappear from store shelves, at least temporarily, according to the broadcaster.
EU ambition to halt tobacco-induced cancer
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), smoking is a leading cause of death in Europe, responsible for over a million deaths annually.
The EU's Beating Cancer Plan aims to achieve a "tobacco-free generation" by 2040. For this, it has set a target of a 30 per cent reduction in tobacco use by 2025.
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In December 2024, the EU Council approved new non-binding recommendations for tobacco and aerosol restrictions, some of which propose bans in public places to strengthen protection against exposure to second-hand smoke and to "encourage current smokers to quit".
Countries across Europe are already resorting to different ways to reduce the number of smokers.
In the Netherlands, for instance, authorities plan to ban filter cigarettes. In Belgium, supermarkets will stop selling tobacco products from 2025.
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