By Timothy S. Donahue

Top Takeaways:

• EU dispute grows: Sweden says France’s nicotine pouch ban violates European single-market principles.
• Harsh penalties: France’s restrictions extend beyond sales to possession, imports and use of nicotine pouches.
• Industry stakes: The fight intensifies pressure on the EU as Brussels prepares to revise tobacco and nicotine rules.

A growing fight over nicotine pouches is becoming one of Europe’s sharpest tobacco-policy disputes, with Sweden accusing France of attacking both the EU single market and Swedish culture.

After Paris implemented one of Europe’s strictest restrictions on nicotine pouches, Sweden’s Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa sharply criticized France’s sweeping ban in comments to the Financial Times. “It is as if we would prohibit French baguettes or French wine in Sweden,” Dousa told the Financial Times. “It is absurd.”

France last month went beyond simple sales restrictions by banning the import, possession, and use of nicotine pouches. Under the French decree, individuals carrying nicotine pouches could theoretically face penalties of up to five years in prison and fines of up to €375,000 ($425,000).

“From our perspective, it is not in line with the single market,” Dousa said.

The Swedish minister went further, characterizing the issue as a cultural and historical conflict. “In Sweden, we have had a relationship with snus since the 1600s,” he said. “So this is an attack on the Swedish way of living.”

In late December of 20225, France’s Council of State suspended enforcement of the decree to the extent it prohibits the manufacture, production, and export of oral nicotine products. The court noted, however, that the commercial sale of such products is already prohibited under existing French law, and that the suspension does not change that status.

The court is expected to rule on the manufacturing ban this year, possibly after the EU adopts its updated Tobacco Products Directive. Earlier this month, the Commission opened a public consultation and call for evidence on revisions to the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and the Tobacco Advertising Directive, two of the bloc’s cornerstone tobacco-control laws.

The dispute has rapidly escalated into a broader European Union political matter. Sweden is among seven EU countries — alongside Italy and Greece — that have formally raised concerns over whether France’s restrictions violate EU trade and free-movement rules.

Several Swedish members of the European Parliament have also threatened to boycott parliamentary sessions in Strasbourg, France, arguing that the restrictions undermine core EU internal-market principles.

Nicotine pouches emerged in Sweden during the 2010s as a tobacco-free evolution of traditional snus products, which Sweden negotiated the right to continue selling when it joined the EU in 1995 despite broader European bans on oral tobacco.

Unlike snus, nicotine pouches currently fall outside the EU’s formal tobacco regulatory framework because they contain nicotine but not tobacco leaf. That regulatory gap has left individual member states to develop their own approaches while Brussels reviews updates to the European Commission’s Tobacco Products Directive for the first time since 2014.

The result has been a fragmented European market. Belgium and the Netherlands have banned sales of nicotine pouches, while Finland has focused more heavily on marketing restrictions and youth protections.

France’s approach goes significantly further by targeting nearly the entire supply and consumer chain. One European diplomat quoted by the Financial Times reportedly described France’s position as “ironic,” given the country’s traditional support for EU single-market integration.

Parts of France’s decree have already faced legal setbacks.

France’s Conseil d’Etat, the country’s highest administrative court, temporarily suspended parts of the ban on production and exports after a challenge by a domestic manufacturer. However, restrictions on sales and possession remain in place.

French anti-tobacco advocates defended the broader policy direction. “We’re not focused on consumers as much as on producers,” François Topart of anti-smoking organization CNTC said. “It’s the commercialization of the pouches that’s of real interest.”

The dispute also highlights widening tensions between public-health groups and nicotine manufacturers over smoke-free nicotine alternatives. Philip Morris International Europe executive Massimo Andolina argued current EU regulations no longer reflect the modern nicotine market.

“We find ourselves in this senseless situation where nobody is talking about regulating or banning cigarettes anymore, but everyone is talking about banning smoke-free products,” Andolina said.