Portugal’s Vape Crackdown: 50% Tax, School Buffers, and Café Bans

Portugal has been placed just behind Australia in a new global index measuring efforts to curb e-cigarette use, a result that tightens the spotlight on the country’s 50 % excise tax on vaping liquids and an expanding web of restrictions that could soon reach every café terrace and school gate.

Why This Matters

• Retailers face steeper rules – flavoured pods are already banned and a 500-metre buffer around schools is on the table for 2026.

• Parents get new leverage – under-18s are barred from buying, and outdoor no-vape zones now include playgrounds, sports centres and university campuses.

• Smokers’ wallets feel it – a standard 10 ml nicotine bottle costs around €3 in tax alone, equivalent to a day’s Lisbon bus fares.

• Investors should watch Brussels – Lisbon is resisting an EU plan that could push taxes even higher across the bloc.

Portugal’s Long Game: A Tobacco-Free Generation by 2040

Successive governments have treated all nicotine devices – heated tobacco sticks, disposable vapes, even emerging nicotine pouches – as functionally identical to cigarettes. The strategy is blunt: shrink availability, choke advertising and make each puff pricier than the last. Since 2023, adult vaping prevalence has stalled at 1 %, one of the world’s lowest, while traditional cigarette smoking still hovers near 29 %.

The 50 % Levy Explained

The Portugal Tax and Customs Authority labels e-liquids a “special consumption product”. Every millilitre containing nicotine attracts €0.351 in duty, roughly half the tax burden placed on an equivalent pack of cigarettes. Zero-nicotine liquids pay half that. Add VAT and retail markup, and a 60 ml bottle that might cost €12 abroad exceeds €20 on a Lisbon shelf. Officials argue the sticker shock discourages trial among teens; critics warn the gap with combustible tobacco is too narrow to nudge adult smokers toward safer options.

Where You Can – and Mostly Cannot – Vape

New rules effective since 2025 make vaping illegal in all indoor hospitality venues, covered terraces, sports arenas, hospitals, bus stations and within doors-and-windows perimeters of public buildings. Existing smoking rooms in restaurants can stay open only until 2030; opening fresh ones is outlawed except at airports and long-distance transport hubs. Municipal inspectors gained authority to issue on-the-spot fines up to €750 for individuals and €10,000 for venue owners.

Voices From the Health Frontline

• The Portuguese Society of Pulmonology says holding tax steady in 2025 was a “missed chance” to further deter nicotine use, calling for annual indexation to inflation.• Compare the Market analyst Steven Spicer praises Lisbon’s approach as “evidence-based discipline” that other EU states should copy.• The World Vapers’ Alliance, meanwhile, fears Portugal’s online-sales ban and flavour restrictions could push users back to cigarettes, undermining harm-reduction goals.

Brussels vs. Lisbon: A Fiscal Standoff

The European Commission wants a 40 % minimum tax on vape liquids across the union, hiking the floor for nicotine pouches to 50 %. The Portugal Finance Ministry argues that uniform rates ignore purchasing-power gaps and could hand a windfall to smugglers; officials estimate illicit trade already costs the treasury €200 M a year. Negotiations will resume before the 2027 EU budget cycle.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Draft legislation circulating in parliament would:

Ban tobacco or vape retailers within 500 m of any school.

Introduce a €0.065-per-gram duty on nicotine pouches.

Expand graphic warnings to all heated-tobacco refills.A final vote is expected after the summer recess, with implementation staggered through 2027.

What This Means for Residents

• Smokers considering a switch should crunch numbers: vaping still costs less than a €6 cigarette pack, but the gap is narrowing.• Bar and restaurant owners must update signage and terrace layouts or risk four-figure fines.• Parents now have legal grounds to complain when someone vapes near playgrounds; local police are authorised to intervene.• Investors in vape shops face shrinking real-estate options and higher compliance costs; diversification into heat-not-burn products may soften the blow.

For now, Portugal’s hard-line stance keeps the country in the global spotlight as a case study in nicotine control – and residents can expect the screws to tighten further before any sign of loosening.