Poland Strengthens Vape Regulations, Delays Sales Ban to Minors Until 2025

According to a report from Prawo.pl on November 25, Poland is drafting regulations to ban the sale of vapes to minors, but the law is expected to take effect no earlier than the second quarter of 2025.

Although the Polish government already prohibits the sale of vapes to individuals under the age of 18, the actual enforcement has been ineffective. Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna stated that the government is considering further amendments to the law to impose a comprehensive ban on the sale of all types of vapes to minors.

The new draft law considers extending the transition period before the regulations come into effect. For vapes or cartridges that do not comply with the new amendments (particularly nicotine-free liquid containers), they may continue to circulate on the market for up to six months after the new rules take effect. This aims to introduce a six-month period in the Tobacco Act amendment, allowing old products (those without warning labels) to remain on the market for some time.

Legal advisor Katarzyna Fortak-Karasińska explained that only after six months of the law coming into effect will products with old packaging (without specific warnings) be banned from the market.

Another proposal is to allow the sale of containers larger than 10 milliliters (typically 60 milliliters) of nicotine-free liquid, so consumers can add nicotine themselves. The Ministry of Health believes that allowing consumers to add nicotine to nicotine-free liquid poses a significant health threat because the concentration of nicotine in the liquid cannot be controlled. Therefore, limiting the size of nicotine-free liquid containers is considered reasonable.

The new draft extends the regulatory implementation process. Initially, a three-month transition period was assumed, but now the law will come into effect 14 days after its publication in the Legal Journal, while retaining the aforementioned six-month transition period.

The regulation will require notification to the European Commission, a process that takes three months. However, this project can only be submitted after approval by the Council of Ministers, which has not yet been granted. Therefore, the Ministry of Health emphasizes that the law should come into effect in the second quarter of 2025.