As Business Insider Polska found out, the draft amendment to the so-called The Tobacco Act has already been accepted by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers. This happened at the meeting on December 11, 2025. However, it has not yet been submitted to the government for discussion. According to our information, it will not be on the agenda before Christmas. We have asked the Ministry of Health when the government will deal with it and we are waiting for an answer. This is a very important amendment that introduces three important changes, although one is missing. From the sentence that disappears from the justification, it can be concluded that it was considered.
See also: The government does not give up on smokers and nicotine companies. The deputy minister announces important changes in the law
The tempting aroma stays in the reusables
The Ministry of Health's draft contains three bans: a ban on disposable e-cigarettes, a ban on nicotine pouches and a ban on tobacco-free and plant-based inserts for tobacco heaters. In the original version, the regulation was also supposed to include a fourth one: a ban on the use of flavors in e-cigarette liquids. But now he is gone.
In the justification for draft UD213, one sentence was deleted: “In addition, it is proposed that the ban on the use of characteristic flavors in liquids for nicotine and nicotine-free e-cigarettes will enter into force on January 1, 2026.”
On the website of the Government Legislation Center you can find this fragment in an older version of the document – from June this year. However, it disappeared in later versions – the sentence was missing in the October document.
Justification of the draft tobacco act, version of June 6, 2025
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RCL
The fact that the content was included in the justification, but not in the actual content of the regulations, may suggest that it disappeared during the ministry's work. However, it was mistakenly included in the justification, which was noticed by the nicotine industry.
Read also: E-cigarettes are conquering the Polish market. The creator of the popular brand is controversial
The industry fought to remove the sentence from the justification
The Association of Vaping Industry Producers wrote to the Ministry of Health in an official letter about not raising the issue from justification to regulations. “The indicated fragment of the justification for the draft law is not reflected in the proposed regulations. The presented draft law does not contain proposals for legal regulations regarding the ban on the introduction of flavors in liquids for electronic cigarettes, nicotine and nicotine-free,” wrote ZPBV during public consultations on the draft in June.
This is an important issue for the industry – a ban on the use of flavored liquids could block the increase in sales of reusable e-cigaretteswhich have just replaced disposable tickets due to more favorable taxation.
Comments on the project of the Association of Vaping Industry Employers
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RCL
The ministry limits access
The Act still retains three other restrictions. This includes a ban on the sale of disposable e-cigarettes, both with and without nicotine, a ban on the sale of flavored nicotine pouches, and a ban on the sale of tobacco-free and plant-based tobacco heater inserts.
The first one is already illusory – after the excise tax of PLN 40 was imposed on disposable e-cigarettes, the products practically disappeared from the market. The two remaining bans will have a real impact on the market.
First of all, we are talking about nicotine bags, which have become, among others, topic of the presidential election campaign when Karol Nawrocki took them during the debate. If flavored ones are banned, only tobacco-flavored ones will remain legal.
The third ban concerns the placing on the market of new nicotine-free tobacco products, unless they are pharmaceutical (medicinal) products, medical devices or foodstuffs. “Such products should be marketed only under the pharmaceutical regime,” says the Ministry of Health.
This means that the ban would cover, among others: nicotine refills for heaters, and would exempt from regulation e.g. nicotine gum sold in pharmacies and used in the so-called nicotine replacement therapy (NTZ). In this case, there will be no changes and flavored products will still be possible.
The Ministry of Health's bill is the most extensive legislative proposal regarding the nicotine industryalthough not the only one.
At the same time, the Ministry of Finance announced its intention to “tighten” the taxation of induction heaters, which we wrote about in Business Insider in September and early December.
See also: Another great battle over e-cigarettes. The government is changing the law again
Important changes for e-cigarette smokers from January
In the second half of January 2026, a ban on the sale of flavored heating tobacco sticks will come into force in Poland. This is the result of the amendment to the so-called tobacco act. Characteristic aroma is a clearly perceptible taste or smell other than tobacco. This refers to tobacco sticks that have a clearly noticeable fruity, spicy, herbal, candy, menthol, vanilla or other flavor or aroma.
If the bans resulting from UD213 also cover nicotine pouches, then Only two groups of “flavored” nicotine products will remain legally sold on the Polish market: e-cigarettes and the mentioned NRT products.
