What goes in the machine
Same pouch. Four bodies of law.
Snus, nicotine pouches, nicotine-free pouches and caffeine pouches are, to a machine, the same object — a tin of the same size that dispenses the same way. To a regulator they are four different things, and the difference decides where the machine may stand.
Which is why a market being closed is a statement about a payload, not about a machine.
Markets open to each, of 23
- Snus
- 4
- Nicotine pouches
- 8
- Nicotine-free pouches
- 22
- Caffeine & energy pouches
- 22
The two that carry nicotine are the two the prohibitions reach.
Contains tobacco
Snus
also called tobacco snus, brown snus, moist snuff
open in 4/23 markets
Moist tobacco, loose or in a portion pouch, placed under the lip. It contains tobacco leaf, and that is the whole legal distinction.
Which law reaches it
Tobacco for oral use under Article 17 of Directive 2014/40/EU, which every EU member state must prohibit. Sweden holds a permanent derogation and is the sole exception. Outside the EU the position varies — lawful in Norway and Switzerland, regulated in the United States.
The trap
The EU prohibition is on placing it on the market, not on possession. Personal import allowances do not make a market.
Examples General · Ettan · Göteborgs Rapé · Grovsnus · Catch · Knox · Kaliber
Named so you can recognise the category. We do not rank them, sell them, or make any claim about them.
Nicotine, no tobacco
Nicotine pouches
also called tobacco-free snus, all-white, nicopods, white snus
open in 8/23 markets
Pre-portioned pouches of nicotine, plant fibre, flavouring and stabilisers, placed under the lip. No tobacco leaf.
Which law reaches it
Outside Article 17 entirely, because there is no tobacco. Regulated country by country instead, which is the patchwork the market map covers — ordinary retail in one state, prohibited in the next.
The trap
“White snus” is the dangerous phrase here. It is used for both a tobacco snus in a white dry portion and a tobacco-free pouch — and those are opposite answers under EU law. Never accept the term without asking whether there is tobacco in it.
Examples ZYN · VELO · LYFT · Nordic Spirit · White Fox · Skruf Super White · XQS · On!
Named so you can recognise the category. We do not rank them, sell them, or make any claim about them.
Neither
Nicotine-free pouches
also called zero pouches, nicotine-free snus, snus substitutes
open in 22/23 markets
The same pouch format with no nicotine and no tobacco — flavouring and fibre only, often sold as a way to keep the habit without the drug.
Which law reaches it
Neither a tobacco product nor a nicotine product, so the prohibitions on the market map do not reach it. Ordinary consumer and food law applies instead.
The trap
Some regimes catch look-alikes regardless of content. Norway’s display prohibition expressly extends to tobakksimitasjoner — tobacco imitations — so a nicotine-free product that mimics snus is caught there even though it contains neither tobacco nor nicotine. Check whether a market regulates the appearance as well as the contents.
Examples Onico · Qvitt · Zeronito · VELO Zero · LOOP Zero · Below Zero · Kickup
Named so you can recognise the category. We do not rank them, sell them, or make any claim about them.
Neither
Caffeine & energy pouches
also called energy pouches, caffeine pods
open in 22/23 markets
The pouch format carrying caffeine, vitamins or amino acids rather than nicotine. Same delivery, entirely different substance.
Which law reaches it
Food law, not tobacco law. Caffeine content, labelling and novel-food rules govern them; the tobacco and nicotine prohibitions do not apply at all.
The trap
Food law is not no law. Caffeine limits, labelling duties and in some markets novel-food authorisation still apply, and age limits can attach to high-caffeine products. This is a different compliance question, not the absence of one.
Examples Cafero · HICAFF · Hypno · Scooper · WAKEY · X Booster · Vika Rave
Named so you can recognise the category. We do not rank them, sell them, or make any claim about them.
Why this matters commercially
Eleven of the 23 markets on this map prohibit selling nicotine products from a machine, and most of the rest are narrowing — the United Kingdom closed in October 2026, Austria in April, Switzerland’s advertising ban lands in 2027, and Ireland, Poland and Spain all have measures drafted.
None of those prohibitions reach a caffeine pouch, because a caffeine pouch is food. The same machine, in the same venue, with a different payload, is a different legal question — and in most of the closed markets it is an open one. That is the practical use of this page.