Planet of the Vapes was reporting about the move to paint vaping as an evil back in 2018 [link]. Atakan Befrits told us: “Swedish media was filled with articles stating there was an e-cig epidemic among its youth and snus use was not decreasing at the desired rates. Government ministers neither released graphs to support such claims, nor did they brief journalists with contextualised data interpretations.
There were reports of a 70% increase in teen ‘ever tried’ vaping leading to calls for flavour bans and to treat vaping like smoking with the smoke-free environment laws.
The new tax, to begin from January 1 2021, is on two levels. Eliquids up to 15mg/ml in strength will be taxed at 2 Krona per millilitre (17.5p), liquids over 15mg/ml will be taxed at 4 Krona (35p). This means a 10ml bottle is going to cost £1.75 and £3.50 more leading to a huge rise in cost for heavy users and a deterrent for smokers considering switching.
Vejpkollen.se reports, “higher concentration eliquids have been a concern for the Ministry of Finance since e-liquid was regulated in accordance with the European Tobacco Directive”.