EU vape excise taxes 2026–2027 — the per-ml cost map buyers price against.

Not yet in force. The current Tobacco Excise Directive (2011/64/EU) covers cigarettes and smoking tobacco only. On 16 July 2025 the European Commission proposed revising it to add e-liquids at minimum rates of €0.12/ml or 20% of retail price (liquids at or below 15 mg/ml) and €0.36/ml or 40% (above 15 mg/ml), plus €143/kg for nicotine pouches, with rates revalued every three years. The proposal needs unanimous approval from all member states and the European Parliament, with industry expecting earliest effect around 2028. Until it passes, taxation is purely national — and every national rate in force today already exceeds the proposed minimum.

Sixteen EU markets tax e-liquid per millilitre as of early 2026. The spread runs from €0.10 in Greece, €0.12 in Cyprus and Luxembourg, €0.15 in Belgium and Spain, €0.20 in Austria (from April 2026), €0.25 in Croatia and Estonia, €0.32 in Germany, €0.34 in Poland, €0.35 in Latvia, €0.40 in Finland, €0.50 in Ireland, €0.75 in Slovenia, up to €1.56 in Lithuania — which raised its rate from €0.63 in a single step in January 2026. Denmark taxes by nicotine band (DKK 1.50/ml up to 12 mg/ml, DKK 2.50/ml above). France and the Netherlands have no e-liquid duty yet. Outside the EU, the UK adds £2.20 per 10 ml from 1 October 2026.

In most markets, yes — and this is the single most expensive assumption in the table. Germany, Ireland, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Croatia, Estonia, Belgium, Malta and Luxembourg all tax nicotine and nicotine-free liquid at the same rate; Italy taxes 0 mg slightly lower (€0.1247 vs €0.1726 per ml); Portugal halves it for 0 mg (€0.175 vs €0.351); only Denmark exempts nicotine-free liquid outright, and the UK applies its £2.20 per 10 ml to nicotine and non-nicotine products alike. For a buyer this means large-format 0 mg SKUs are not a tax escape route — duty scales with millilitres, not milligrams.

The importer of record — whoever brings the goods into the market for consumption. On DAP terms that is the buyer, who must hold or appoint an excise warehouse and remit the duty; on DDP terms it is the seller, which is why DDP quotes from China into excise markets are rare and need explicit duty terms. Some markets add paperwork before the goods move at all: Italy requires PLI tax-stamp codes from the ADM customs agency, and the UK will require duty stamps on packs from 1 April 2027. Agree in the contract who registers, who remits, and who bears a rate change mid-contract.

The UK Vaping Products Duty takes effect on 1 October 2026 at £2.20 per 10 ml of e-liquid — nicotine and nicotine-free alike, so a 2 ml pod carries £0.44 of duty before VAT, and a 10 ml bottle carries £2.20. Vaping products will also become stored in excise duty points from that date, duty stamps reach packs on 1 April 2027, and old-stock sell-through ends 31 March 2027. For EU buyers it matters because the UK sits outside the EU directive entirely: separate registration, separate stamps, separate timing — and the UK rate is roughly double the German rate per millilitre.

Three habits. First, price from a landed-cost table per destination market — duty, VAT, stamps and logistics — not from the last purchase invoice; Germany's retail price for a 10 ml product moved from about €6.99 in 2024 to €9.52 in 2026 almost entirely on tax and VAT. Second, write escalator clauses into multi-quarter contracts: Latvia (+€0.05), Poland (+€0.16) and Hungary (+8%) all have 2026–2027 increases already legislated, and Lithuania showed a +148% single-step jump is possible. Third, re-check the destination rate before every price review — national rates move annually, and stale tables are the most common quoting error in this category.