Poland is tightening its regulation of nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes — but are rising taxes and expanding restrictions creating unintended consequences?
At #GFN26, Ewelina Woike-Reguła and Robert Boneczko examine Poland’s rapidly changing regulatory and fiscal landscape, from steep excise duty increases to proposed flavour restrictions on nicotine pouches and a possible ban on disposable e-cigarettes.
The discussion explores how Poland has extended excise duties to new product categories, including vaping devices, and how businesses have responded to rules that struggle to keep pace with the market. With further changes under consideration, the speakers highlight concerns about regulatory uncertainty, the growth of the grey and black markets, and the potential risks for consumers.
Transcription:
GFN Science Lab 4 — Ewelina Woike-Reguła & Robert Boneczko
2026-06-05 · 11:30-13:00 (Europe/Warsaw) · Global Forum on Nicotine 2026
Barnaby Page 0:00:09
Ewelina and Robert, who are going to talk about regulations on pouch and e-cigarettes here in Poland.
Video 0:00:21
Hello everyone and thank you for your time. My name is Ewelina Woike-Reguła and together with my colleague Robert Boneczko we'll briefly discuss the regulations concerning nicotine pouches and electronic cigarettes in Poland. So the Polish nicotine market is changing very quickly with new regulations introduced in a relatively short time.
Until recently nicotine pouches were not specifically regulated, but this changed in 2025 when the tobacco law was amended and for the first time set out specific rules for this type of product. At the same time existing regulations for e-cigarettes were extended to cover also non-nicotine products.
As a result, both nicotine pouches and electronic cigarettes are now subject to similar restrictions. They cannot be sold to minors, the sales are banned in certain places, such as schools and healthcare facilities. Online sales are also prohibited. There is also a ban on advertising and promotion.
In addition, companies need to inform the authorities in advance before introducing new products to the market and follow basic rules on composition, packaging and nicotine levels. At the same time, further changes are already being discussed.
A new amendment is currently in progress, which may introduce a ban on disposable cigarettes, mainly for health and environmental reasons. There are also plans to limit flavours in nicotine pouches to tobacco flavour only, to make them less attractive, especially to young people. The final shape of the regulations is not yet known.
There is no full agreement within the government on these changes, with some concerns about the economic impact and the risk of growing grey market. So finally, looking at the border picture, we can also see increased enforcement in practice. Authorities are carrying out more inspections and paying closer attention to whether the rules are followed.
So overall, the direction in Poland is quite clear. We are moving towards stricter regulations of the nicotine market. Turning to the tax environment affecting the nicotine market, the Polish nicotine industry is currently facing one of the largest excise duty reforms in recent years.
These changes fundamentally reshape the fiscal landscape, in particular for electronic cigarettes and other nicotine products such as nicotine pouches. Among the changes introduced in 2025 were the revision of the so-called excise duty roadmap, which provides for significant increases in excise duty on selected products, such as e-cigarette liquids.
Moreover, excise duty regime has been extended to vaping devices, as well as sets of parts for vaporizers. Excise duty rate for this type of goods has been set at 40 zloty per device. Poland has thereby become one of very few countries worldwide and the only EU member state to impose excise duty on vaping devices as such.
As of 2025, excise duty also covers nicotine pouches, as well as other nicotine products such as nicotine gums and aerosols.
Despite these far-reaching changes, Polish Ministry of Finance is moving forward and, first and foremost, is willing to impose a 40-slot excise duty on reusable electronic cigarette tanks and cartridges, regardless of the technology used or whether they contain a heating element or liquid.
So it appears that Ministry of Finance is treating the Polish nicotine market as a testing ground for excise duty regulations. Consequently, the exercise duty changes that have been implemented, as well as those currently being proposed, present a challenge for nicotine market players in Poland.
Robert Boneczko 0:04:28
Let's begin with the fiscal topic first. So the fiscal policy, and in particular excise duty policy, serves many purposes beyond just simply raising revenues to state budget. It is a mechanism through which governments shape market behaviour and influence consumption. And the Polish taxation of nicotine products is a vivid illustration of this.
And over the past two years, that principle has been pushed to its limits. I'd like to go briefly through the key developments of these recent changes in Polish tax law, especially in particular excess duty, focus on two main nicotine products that, in my opinion, mostly were affected by these recent changes, and share some thoughts on where this is all heading.
So, the Polish nicotine market has definitely undergone a fundamental transformation of the excise duty landscape, both in the range of the new products that became subject to excise duty, and the financial, the fiscal burden placed on nicotine market participants. And two categories of nicotine products definitely stand out.
These are nicotine pouches and electronic cigarettes. Let me start briefly with nicotine pouches. As of August 2025, they were brought for the very first time within the excess duty regime in Poland.
And the current excess duty rate is in US currency approximately over $50 per kilogram, which is rather significant fiscal burden placed on product category that until recently was entirely out of the scope of excise duty system. Alongside nicotine pouches, other nicotine products such as nicotine gums became subject to excise duty.
The situation regarding electronic cigarettes is definitely more complex and frankly more instructive about the dynamics between the tax regulations and the market behaviour. In January 2025, Poland introduced the new roadmap of excise duty that locks in significant year-on-year increases of excise duty on nicotine products until 2027.
And the current rate for electronic cigarette liquids is in US currency, once again, around 40 cents per millilitre, compared to 15 cents per millilitre at the beginning of 2025. So, it is definitely a significant increase for this short period of time, over 160%. And other increases are still to come.
But the Polish legislator did not stop just at simply raising excise duty rates. From July 2025, excise duty has been extended to cover also vaping devices as such. So, therefore, this made Poland one of very few countries worldwide and only one EU jurisdiction that decided to pursue this path and take this approach and impose excess duty on vaping devices.
So, why have so few countries worldwide decided to impose excess duty on vaping devices? The answer, I think, is apparent, because the market always finds a way around it almost immediately. In Poland, market participants started offering components of vaping devices separately. They were selling the tank, the heating elements, even the mouthpiece separately.
Each item of a vaping device was individually sold, and each therefore was falling outside the scope of excise duty system. And therefore, the excise duty on vaping devices was not paid. So once again, the old truth about the tax law, I think, was confirmed, which is market always moves faster than the legislator.
Of course, one may question the ethics behind this whole situation, these actions made by the market participants. But this is, I would say, the economic predictable response to poorly designed tax regulations. Nevertheless, Polish legislator was not passive and responded by once again extending excise duty to new product categories, this time sets of parts for vaporizers.
But once again, this was easy to circumvent in practice. So the next idea was to impose excess duty on cartridges, the containers of the vaping devices, regardless of whether they contain heating elements or liquid. The aim was to close this loophole of selling components separately. But this also did not provide the success, and that proposal ran into some problems.
The proposed definition of the tank, the container, was designed so broad that it sent alarm bells ringing all over the nicotine industry and also beyond the nicotine industry, also including, among others, manufacturers of 3D printers, because they may found themselves suddenly liable to pay excess duty on ink containers.
So currently I think Ministry of Finance resigned and thought that this idea to impose tax on containers is unworkable, unacceptable, and I think it has abandoned this idea. The current thinking, though nothing is yet settled, is to shift this levy of excess duty to the power and control unit of the vaping device. the so-called bottom or the base.
But still, this is just a proposal at this present moment and nothing has been yet settled. So the key takeaway is straightforward. Polish nicotine market has becoming a testing ground for excess duty regulations. And market participants are operating under conditions that are driven by the regulations that are constantly changing.
And there's a broader consequence that, in my opinion, should be taken into consideration and definitely deserves attention. The rapid escalation of this excess duty burden is affecting the growth of the grey or black market. And this is, of course, not a theoretical concern, but this is an entirely predictable economic response to legally compliant products.
that became dramatically expensive in a very short period of time. So the implications go far away, just the fiscal aspects, the state budgets aspects. And consumers who turn to unregulated channels often expose themselves to genuine health risks because those products that are offered to sale in these unregulated channels do not meet safety basic standards. very often.
So to sum up, the fiscal revolution in the Polish nicotine sector is still underway. And for those operating on this field, manufacturers, distributors, even advisors as me and Ewelina, the ability to anticipate and to respond very quickly to these tax and regulatory changes has become a very valuable competitive advantage. Thank you.
Ewelina Woike-Reguła 0:12:57
Moving on to regulatory part, let's call it that way. As shown in the presentation, Polish nicotine market is going through a lot of regulatory changes right now. Even though the recording was prepared a month ago, there have been some updates that I think are worth mentioning.
So, first, the proposed changes for nicotine pouches and electronic cigarettes are still being discussed, and this includes a possible ban on e-cigarettes, on disposable cigarettes, I'm sorry, and flavour restrictions for nicotine pouches.
Polish government explained that, based on the studies, since the introduction on the Polish market, disposable e-cigarettes have been most popular among young people. And also studies indicate that young people most often used nicotine pouches with flavours such mint or sweet flavour.
And that is why, according to Polish government, these new regulations should be implemented. Another important update is that in May this year, the proposed regulation was notified to the European Commission and it is an important necessary step for the new regulations to be implemented.
As a result, the legislative process is currently paused and the so-called standstill period is expected to last until August this year. So right now we do not know exactly what the final rules will be and some parts of the proposal may still change.
But I think it's important to say that Poland is not the only country moving in this direction, and similar discussions are taking place across Europe. As far as I know, and based on what we have heard from our clients, similar restrictions have already been implemented in other EU countries. At the same time we are seeing more activity at EU level.
We can definitely expect the revision of tobacco directive as mentioned before. So for businesses that means that it's important to watch not only the national changes but also what is happening at EU level. But at the same time, I would not say that this is a reason to avoid Polish market. In my opinion, Polish market remains an important market with a strong consumer demand.
But the key challenge is that companies should be ready for regulatory changes. And what we often do is we help companies to stay updated. We closely monitor legislative change and try to explain companies what the proposed regulation may mean in practice. What we try to also do is to participate in the discussion around new proposed regulations.
For example, take part in parliamentary meetings just to make sure that, where possible, the new regulations are realistic from the business perspective. So I think that my conclusion would be that regulation in Poland is becoming stricter. That's the fact. But it is not something that's happening only in Poland because Poland is a part of a border European trend. Thank you.
Barnaby Page 0:16:29
Thank you. Actually, I have a couple of questions. Well, one question for each of you, and then again, we'll turn over to the floor. So obviously, not completely unheard of, but quite strict, quite stringent regulations coming in there in Poland. Robert, I think the first question is maybe more for you.
When the new tax rates were being set, was there any indication that the government was considering the principle of taxing less harmful products at a lower rate?
Robert Boneczko 0:17:00
The problem in Poland is that there is no cooperation between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health. So there is no one coherent policy. Of course, you're referring to this philosophy of policy less harm, less tax, for example, in Sweden that was adopted. But Polish Ministry of Finance policy is, I think, in my opinion, focused on just revenues.
It's blind on the growth of the green market. So this tax rate established especially for vaping devices, which is 40 zloty per device in US currency, it's around $11 per device. was, let's say, out of the blue. There is no base for this. So what I'm missing is that there is no one coherent policy that would take into consideration the public health and fiscal considerations.
Barnaby Page 0:18:10
Yeah, thank you. And just for context there, I haven't checked out yet the prices in Zaback. Your 40 shloti tax on a device, how much would a typical device cost before tax?
Robert Boneczko 0:18:23
Before, several, let's say, 17 zloty. It, of course, depends on the type of the vaping devices, whether reusable or not. However, it was not above 20, 30 zloty. Right now, it's 60. But as I said, the market provided the solution by selling each component separately without this tax.
Barnaby Page 0:18:50
So it's a very substantial tax, yeah. Thank you. Ewelina, the question I wanted to ask you, this is actually not really directly related to this science session, but it was something that came up when we were talking about the TPD and consumer engagement with the EU earlier in the week. And you talked about Polish parliamentarians a few minutes ago.
How easy is it in Poland for citizens, for consumer advocates and so on to influence political thought?
Ewelina Woike-Reguła 0:19:20
That's a really good question. I would say that it is not easy, definitely. For sure, the bigger the company is, the bigger impact potentially it might have. But I think that for a regular consumer, I would say that it's impossible to influence the final outcome of the regulation.
Barnaby Page 0:19:48
Sadly, that's pretty much what people from most countries said when we did a sort of poll on that the other day. Do we have any questions from the floor for our Polish contributors? You've got a mic, yeah.
Pascal Michel 0:20:05
Just a quick follow-up. So you mentioned that there's a disconnect between the fiscal policy and the public health policy. Has public health reacted to the fiscal policy at this point? Thank you.
Robert Boneczko 0:20:17
Definitely, there are some internal discussions between these ministers. However, the final outcomes that we can see from time to time, the new regulations amending excise duty shows that there is no... conclusions, like definitely Ministry of Finance is focused on the fiscal considerations.
In my opinion, the position, the approach of Ministry of Health is definitely more passive regarding the tax aspects, and they left the Ministry of Finance to handle this issue, but the outcome is that each three, four months we have to familiarize with new regulations because the current one are so leaky and the Ministry of Finance is starting to patching these gaps.
And I think it's a never-ending story. So I believe that someday they will meet internally and come up with one policy. For example, this is one of multiple examples of less harmless slacks in Sweden. But currently, I think we have to deal with the regulations that are completely provided by the Ministry of Finance.
Norbert Schmidt 0:21:48
I'm wondering how this flavour ban will affect the exports of, for example, this nice Polish plant that I really like, apple mint. And what can we do? I don't like tobacco flavour anymore.
Ewelina Woike-Reguła 0:22:22
I will try to answer that question. It's hard to say at this moment because the legislative process is still ongoing. But based on the current wording of the draft regulation, the nicotine pouches with flavours will be banned. So only nicotine pouches with a flavour of tobacco will be possible to place on the market.
So, in such a case, import of such a product will be also banned. I understand the concern, but I guess we will have to wait for the final wording of the regulation.