Illegal Chinese vapes now account for 48% of the market: they are spreading rapidly across Europe
17 March 18:14
Nearly half of all e-cigarettes sold in Europe are illegal, with 90% of these products coming from China.
This was reported by [Komersant], citing the results of a study conducted by the German Fraunhofer IIS institute and the logistics research company MRU GmbH, commissioned by the Swiss consulting firm SKR AG.
The situation in Ukraine: the market is almost entirely in the “shadows”
In Ukraine, the problem of the illegal e-cigarette market is significantly more acute.
According to Kantar Ukraine, in July–August 2025, the share of illegal products reached a record 93.6%. As a result, Ukraine’s state budget loses approximately 7.5 billion UAH in tax revenue annually .
European trends and losses
In the European Union, the illegal vape market is estimated at 6.6 billion euros. It is growing by approximately 8.6% annually and may soon exceed the 10 billion euro mark.
Germany records some of the largest losses among EU countries: in 2024 alone, the country’s budget lost 119 million euros due to counterfeit products. And these losses are growing.
This highlights significant gaps in the EU’s customs control system, tax administration, and consumer protection mechanisms.
Differences in regulation and approaches among member states create “gray areas” where illegal trade can flourish unchecked .
Currently, about 3.1% of the EU population, or 11.9 million people, regularly use e-cigarettes, and many of them are teenagers.
The highest percentage of vapers among all EU countries is in France (7.4%), as well as in the Baltic states— Estonia (8.8%), Latvia (7.9%), and Lithuania (5.2%).
As researchers note, unlike the market for conventional cigarettes, the vaping market in the EU remains largely unregulated.
“Over 470,000 types of vaping products are supplied to the European Union, and these products contain over a thousand different ingredients. And all of this remains outside the control of the European Union for now,” says Rico Bach, managing partner of SKR AG.
The China Factor and “Gray Areas”
As the study revealed, over 90% of all vapes (including many illegal ones) arrive in the European Union from China.
“45,900 tons of vaping products were imported into the European Union in 2024. About 90% came from China, including 70% from the region around the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Specifically, 10,000–11,000 tons consisted of e-cigarettes themselves, with the remainder being e-liquids. It is telling that China strictly regulates these products to ensure they are not sold domestically but are instead exported,” explains Uwe Veres-Homm, head of the Risk Analysis Department at Fraunhofer IIS.
For China, the export of e-cigarettes and e-liquids (including illegal ones) has become a massive industry, with approximately 700 officially registered manufacturing companies and over 10,000 unregistered ones already operating in the sector.
Vape products from China mainly reach the EU by sea and rail, as well as via parcels.
Within the EU, vapes are sold through wholesale and retail networks, as well as very intensively online.
“In 2024, approximately 800 million parcels arrived from China to EU countries. About 30 million containers arrive by sea from China to the largest European ports—Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg—each year. Every week, about 30,000 containers arrive from China to the EU via Eastern European countries. It is clear that it is physically impossible to inspect such enormous volumes of shipments. And quite often, these shipments may contain illegal e-cigarettes,” says Horst Manner-Romberg, Managing Director of MRU GmbH.
As the study showed, the highest share of illegal products (the “black” and “gray” markets) in the vape market among all EU countries is in Finland ( 67%), the Czech Republic (66%), Hungary and Slovakia ( 63% each), and Bulgaria (62%).
The lowest rates of illegal products in the EU e-cigarette market are in Belgium (26%), Portugal (30%), the Netherlands (32%), Sweden (33%), and Germany (36%)—but even in these countries, this share exceeds 25–30%.
As Rico Bak of SKR AG notes, the European Union must significantly strengthen its control over vapes— otherwise, Europe risks being “swamped” by Chinese vapes.
“The EU currently has a robust system of control over cigarettes, but there is no such control for vapes. However, there should be. Especially given that many teenagers are already using vapes. We must not wait until someone dies from this dangerous product, as has already happened in the U.S.,” warns Rico Buck.
However, Uwe Veres-Homm of Fraunhofer IIS explains that this does not mean a complete ban on e-cigarettes in Europe, as that would only push the market further underground.
Rather, the focus is on stricter import controls, preventing sales to minors, more active cooperation with China in this area, greater harmonization of legislation among different EU countries, and so on.
