Will you be able to buy snus and nicotine pouches in the UK?
Although the UK was a part of the EU, the public sale of Snus was still prohibited in the UK. Although this could change in the future, this law currently remains the same, and it seems unlikely to change in the near future.
The good news is that it appears that nicotine pouches will remain as readily available as before. There is currently no proper regulation on nicotine pouches in the EU and, of course, the UK could now impose its own laws on the sale and use of nicotine pouches. It seems that, being a non-tobacco product, nicotine pouches are viewed in the same light as vape products. At the time of writing this article, no restrictions or changes to nicotine pouches have been mentioned.
Even though the UK has now left the EU, it is important to remember that the UK’s laws and legislations are very tightly interwoven with that of the EU, which is only natural after being part of the Union for 47 years, it takes time to make changes, and you could argue the UK would like to keep consistency between borders for convenience when possible. It is also worth noting that some of the EU’s tobacco legislation was even suggested by the UK.
Historically, the UK has always seemed to be slightly more firm and stringent than the EU in terms of tobacco laws and so it remains to be seen whether the UK will exert some of its new independence and try to impose stricter regulations on the use of tobacco.
Now that Brexit has happened, will the price of tobacco products change?
The vast majority of the UK’s tobacco products, a whopping 96%, are imported from EU member states, and because the UK is so healiy reliant upon the EU for the importation of tobacco, the price of tobacco products will most likely become subject to the UK global tariff that came into effect on 1 January 2021and the UK will no longer be required to follow EU’s directives on tobacco tax or on imposing price caps on tobacco products. In a worse case scenario taxes, and the prices, of tobacco products could increase as a result. So far, a few years into Brexit already, this doesn't seem to have happened.
In any event, with new alternatives such as vape products and nicotine pouches, there is only so much the government could do. Watch this space.
For more great news and articles, head back to this Nicformation page.
Comments
Post a Comment