One product, many rulebooks

The short, honest answer to “are nicotine pouches legal in Europe?” is: it depends on the country. EU-level tobacco law — the Tobacco Products Directive — was written for tobacco products, and tobacco-free nicotine pouches contain no tobacco. That leaves most of the regulation to each member state, and the result is a patchwork: dedicated national laws in some countries, food-law classifications in others, and outright sales bans in a few.

Below is a descriptive overview of the countries where the position is clearest, followed by how snus fits into the picture and how 24Nico's assortment adapts to these differences.

Why snus and nicotine pouches are treated differently

Search queries often bundle the two, but legally they sit in different worlds. Tobacco snus is banned from sale across the EU except in Sweden, under the EU Tobacco Products Directive; Sweden negotiated an exemption when it joined the EU in 1995. That ban applies to snus because snus contains tobacco.

Tobacco-free nicotine pouches are not snus. They contain no tobacco, so the EU-wide snus ban does not automatically apply to them. Instead, each country decides how to regulate them under its own framework — which is exactly why the table below varies so much from one border to the next.

Country-by-country overview

The table below summarises the position in the countries where it is best established at the time of writing. It is a snapshot, not a promise — several of these entries have changed in the last few years, and more change is likely.

Two of these markets have their own detailed guides: see are nicotine pouches legal in the UK? for the British framework, and our deep-dive on the German situation for how the food-law classification works in practice.

How 24Nico's assortment adapts per country

24Nico is a Swedish retailer selling direct to consumers, and the assortment you see on the site adapts to the country you are shopping from. In some countries only nicotine-free pouches are offered; in others the full range is available to adults aged 18 and over, with age-verified sales. Everywhere, sales are restricted to adult consumers — that is company policy regardless of what local law requires.

Rules change — check before you rely on this

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules on nicotine pouches change frequently across Europe — within a single year, bans have been introduced, adopted and suspended. Always check the current rules in your own country before buying, using or travelling with nicotine pouches, and treat any overview (including this one) as a snapshot rather than a guarantee.