Raise taxes on tobacco.

The tenth edition of the WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic (1), released in June 2025, presents the latest comparative data to assess global, regional and national progress in protecting people from the harms of tobacco use. To support evidence-based policy dialogue in the WHO European Region, a set of measurespecific factsheets has been developed, each summarizing the implementation of one MPOWER1 component. This factsheet provides an overview of the status of the R — Raise taxes on tobacco measure as of 2024.

What should be done?

• Enforce the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Article 6, which states “Each Party should […] adopt […] tax policies and […] price policies on tobacco products, so as to contribute to the health objectives aimed at reducing tobacco consumption” (2).
• Simplify the overall tax structure to ensure easy implementation.
• Tax all tobacco products in a comparable way, which will make excise tax on tobacco products more effective in reducing overall tobacco use and helps avoid substitution between products.
• Raise taxes periodically so that real prices increase faster than the combined effects of inflation and increased consumer purchasing power.
• Implement measures to combat tax evasion and smuggling.
• Consider using tobacco taxes to pay for tobacco control and other public health and social programmes. This will make increases in tobacco taxes more popular with the public, including tobacco users.
• Examine trends in the affordability of cigarettes. Analyse changes in cigarette prices relative to people’s purchasing power to help policy-makers to change tax policy and to reduce cigarette consumption effectively (2).

Regulation of e-cigarettes in the WHO European Region as of 2024

E-cigarettes are the most common form of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS), but other products, such as e-cigars, e-pipes and e-shishas are also available. In these systems, a liquid is heated to create aerosols that are inhaled by the user. So-called e-liquids typically contain various amounts of nicotine, flavours and other additives and chemicals. ENNDS are essentially the same as ENDS, but the e-liquids used are marketed as nicotine-free; in practice, however, some products claimed to be nicotine-free have been found to contain nicotine. E-cigarettes are addictive and harmful to health. Evidence on their adverse effects on population health is mounting, including increased risks for cardiovascular diseases, metabolic dysfunction, lung disorders and other adverse effects (1). Young people in many countries are increasingly taking up the use of e-cigarettes. To prevent this uptake by young people and non-smokers and to counter nicotine addiction, strong regulatory measures should be adopted in a comprehensive approach to tobacco control and should be monitored appropriately.

What should be done?

Countries that ban the sale of e-cigarettes should ensure strong implementation of the ban and continue monitoring and surveillance to support public health interventions.

Complementary measures, such as a ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and measures that prevent illicit trade, should be in place and strongly enforced.

Countries that permit the commercialization (e.g. sale, importation, distribution, manufacture) of e-cigarettes as consumer products should ensure strong regulations, including, at a minimum:

• regulating e-cigarettes to reduce their appeal and their harm to the population, by, for example, banning all flavouring agents; prohibiting attractive and/or promotional features on the presentation and packaging of products; regulating features that enable the user to manipulate the product; limiting the concentration and quantity of nicotine; setting a maximum volume for e-cigarette cartridges; setting a maximum battery power; prohibiting device features that permit transmission of information to and from third parties (including manufacturers); and prohibiting additives that have carcinogenic, mutagenic or reproductive proprieties;
• protecting the public from misleading or deceptive claims, such as on the safety or efficacy of e-cigarettes for quitting cigarette smoking;
• prohibiting sale of e-cigarettes to children, controlling the supply chain to reduce the risk that children will gain access and enforcing such restrictions;
• applying tobacco control measures to e-cigarettes, including the measures to reduce supply and demand of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control;
• strengthening monitoring and surveillance to provide governments with a real-time view of the uptake of e-cigarettes and patterns of use to guide regulatory action;
• strengthening enforcement to ensure that the above measures are effective; and sharing information on the harmful effects of e-cigarette use with the public (1).