Czechia: Czechia’s Progressive Strategy on Adult-Orientated Flavours

After 14 years of smoking prevalence rates that had remained persistently high and largely unchanged, the Czech Government adopted a new strategy in 2019 based on the recognition that reducing projected smoking-related harm requires coordinated action across ministries.

While smoking prevalence rates in Czechia are still broadly in line with the European Union average, between 2020 and 2023, the country experienced the largest reduction in smoking prevalence within the bloc, a reduction of nearly a quarter, from 30% to 23%^[1].

More recently, the Czech Government applied the same progressive approach to regulating flavours in Vapour Products, targeting flavours that appeal predominantly to the underaged, without removing adult-orientated flavours such as coffee, tea, tobacco, mint, or other plants, including their fruits, flowers, seeds, leaves, and extracts.

A New Approach to an Old Problem

A National Strategy to Prevent and Reduce the Harm Associated with Addictive Behaviour was adopted in 2019. A key principle of this strategy was the use of “differentiated approaches” to reflect different levels of risk, with implementation responsibilities distributed across Government ministries^[2].

This principle was further reinforced in the 2023 Government Programme Statement, which established that taxation and regulation should be risk-proportionate and that policy should balance prevention with harm reduction^[7].

This progressive approach has sidestepped a significant weakness present in other countries within the European Union: policy making conducted in silos, with health and finance authorities often pursuing objectives in isolation from each other. Czechia’s experience suggests that when governments align around the principles of Tobacco Harm Reduction, the impact can be pivotal. It is within this broader context that Czechia’s regulation of flavours in Vapour Products should be understood.

Flavours: A Targeted Framework

Evidence consistently shows that adult smokers who use Vapour Products with flavours other than tobacco are more likely to switch completely than those who use tobacco-flavoured alternatives^[8]. Vapour Products with flavours other than tobacco are also reported as particularly popular among adult smokers, who have completed the switch to vaping instead of continued smoking^[9].

On that basis policy makers, regulators, and public health authorities in Czechia aligned on the need to ban “so-called confectionery flavours that are attractive primarily to minors, such as the flavours of gummy bears or cotton candy”^[10], while avoiding any measure that could unnecessarily eliminate products popular with adult smokers as alternatives to continued smoking^[11]. Legislation was subsequently adopted that defines permitted “characterising flavours” as “recognisable smell[s] or taste[s] of coffee, tea, tobacco, mint and other plants, including their fruits, flowers, seeds, leaves and extracts thereof or a combination thereof”, prohibiting flavours outside this definition^[7]. The result is a framework that targets the elimination of flavour profiles that appeal predominantly to the underaged, while maintaining flavours preferred by adult smokers seeking alternatives to continued smoking.

Czechia’s progressive strategy demonstrates how targeted regulation based on robust evidence can balance underage protection with the continued availability of Smokeless Products conducive to a complete switch by adult smokers and nicotine consumers.

Similar Approach, Different Regulation

New Zealand addressed a similar challenge through different but complementary regulation, reflecting how progressive Tobacco Harm Reduction strategies often emerge independently in response to local circumstances. Rather than banning specific flavours or ingredients in Vapour Products, the Government regulated access by requiring most flavours to be sold through Specialist Vape Retailers (SVR), while allowing tobacco, mint and menthol flavours to remain available in general retail outlets^[13]. These SVR operate under strict licensing and underage access prevention requirements, and are designed as adult-only environments^[14].

In addition, regulation tightened packaging and labelling requirements enabling only a prescribed list of factual flavour naming descriptors to be used by manufacturers, which includes terms such as “cinnamon” and “apple”^[13], thereby prohibiting descriptors that may appeal predominantly to the underaged.

Through this approach, New Zealand was able to drive down underage vaping, achieving significant reductions among 13-to 15-year-olds for the fourth consecutive year in 2025^[15]. At the same time, adults retained the ability to choose their preferred flavour profiles, helping the country to continue to drive down smoking prevalence rates to historic lows^[15].

Importantly, the approach of New Zealand strikes a balance between protecting the underaged while encouraging adult smokers to switch, with Government^[16] and the Ministry of Health^[17] concluding from the available evidence that vaping, and regulated, legal availability of a range of Vapour Product flavours, play an important role in driving down smoking prevalence.

While Czechia regulates which flavours can be used in Vapour Products, New Zealand regulates the way flavours are offered for sale.