Denmark: Siltanews – News Desk
Denmark pursues a 30-point action plan aimed at protecting minors from using nicotine products and alcoholic drinks. Now, the supervisory authority could use social media to look for abuses of the law. In a few months, new rules on the sale of alcoholic beverages to young people will come into force.
Just before Christmas, the Danish Parliament, Folketinget, approved the final 16 measures in a multi-year plan to prevent the use of nicotine products and alcohol by children and adolescents. Some of which came into force on 1 January 2025.
“As a society, we have a special responsibility for children and young people, which is why I am pleased that there is broad support in the Danish Parliament for the prevention plan,” Denmark’s Liberal Health Minister Sophie Løhde said in a statement.
Health concerns are growing in Denmark, as, for example, 36 per cent of young people (15-29 years old) use at least one tobacco or nicotine product. Many high school students are considered to have high alcohol consumption.
In November 2023, the Danish tripartite government (Social Democrats, Liberals and Moderates) agreed with the Green Left, Denmark Democrats, the Conservatives People’s Party and the Alternative on a 30-point prevention plan. Now, the parliament has adopted all 30 measures. The implementation started in April 2024 with a rise in the tax on nicotine products and smokeless tobacco.
Later, in June, a law was passed making it illegal to import and possess ‘puff bars’ (vapes) and other e-cigarettes with a high nicotine content or illegal sweet flavours. Online shops selling tobacco, nicotine- e-cigarettes and/or alcohol to consumers became also obliged to check the age of each consumer.
Since 1 July 2024, the supervisory agency, the Danish Safety Technology Authority, can use mystery shoppers. A young person under the age of 18 could be asked to buy nicotine products from shops suspected of selling them to under aged persons.
Now, politicians have given the Danish Safety Technology Authority more power. From 1 January 2025, it could, for example, permanently confiscate illegal tobacco and nicotine products without a court order.
Penalties for selling tobacco and nicotine products that are illegal to market in Denmark and for selling tobacco, nicotine products, and alcohol to minors are being increased, with fines starting from €6,700.
In some situations, the authority will also be able to temporarily deprive retailers of the right to market tobacco and nicotine products.
Additionally, it can use fictitious profiles and go undercover to search for sellers or ads marketing illegal goods on social media, for example. It can also order social media companies to close profiles or remove content that refers to tobacco and nicotine products, which are illegal to market in Denmark.
Charlotta Pisinger, a professor of tobacco and nicotine prevention at Syddansk University, also working at the Centre for Clinical Research and Prevention at Bispebjerg-Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen, is pleased with the plan.