The Government approved the draft to the new tobacco law that broadens the control of tobacco and related products (including nicotine bags), with measures that equate these items to traditional tobacco and prohibit the vapers of a single use. The initiative, which must still exceed the parliamentary process, advances after the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of smoking 2024-2027, but that still, has already lit the alarms in Sweden, whose executive has formally objected the restrictions when considering that they act as commercial barriers within the EU.
This concern has also reached tourist sectors due to the high presence of Nordic travelers in Spain (remember that it is the main engine of Spain and its economy). Before the pandemic, the Scandinavian countries contributed several million annual arrivals and, with the recovery, they have gained weight in tourist spending: in December 2024, the aggregate of Nordic countries accounted for 8.3% of the total expenditure of international visitors. The National Statistics Institute (INE) also confirms that 2024 was a record year with 93.8 million foreign tourists.
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The Ministry of Health opened in 2024 a royal decree to regulate the new devices (vapeo with and without nicotine), nicotine bags and generic tobacco packaging. That draft limited the flags (with permission for tobacco aromas) and imposed sanitary warnings; The new law presented in September 2025 reinforces regulatory comparison with tobacco and adds the prohibition of disposable voperators. The head of Health, Mónica García, then defended “recover leadership” in smoking control.
If we look at the commercial plane, the CNMC has questioned some proposed technical thresholds, such as the limitation of nicotine content by bag at 0.99 mg, by estimating that evidence that justifies the proportionality of that restriction and claiming that, if maintained, it is articulated by rule with the range of law is missing. The opinion asks to value less burdensome alternatives for the market.
The reaction from Stockholm has been unusual. The Minister of Foreign Trade, Benjamin Dousa, has argued that, “if smoking is allowed, regulated nicotine bags should also be”, and his government has sent formal observations to Madrid in the European technical notification process. The Swedish initiative has received support from other Member States in defense of nicotine products without combustion.
In the public debate, damage reduction users and activists denounce that regulatory hardening can force consumers to return to cigarette in the absence of smokeless nicotine alternatives. Testimonies collected by specialized means in Sweden point to tobacco purchases “due to lack of availability” of pouches (bags without nicotine) with usual doses. They are perceptions difficult to quantify, but illustrate the tension between public health and freedom of choice of consumer.