France’s health ministry has banned a number of popular nicotine-based products including Zyn pouches, and violators of the law could face a nearly half-million-dollar fine and years in jail.

The prohibition extends to the use, acquisition, possession and sale of oral nicotine products such as pouches and gum lozenges. Those violating the law could be penalized by up to five years in prison and a $436,600 fine.

The ban includes products such as Zyn, which originated in Sweden and has surged in popularity throughout Europe and the US in recent years as a tobacco-free alternative to smoking.

According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, nicotine pouches were the second most frequently used tobacco product in 2024 among American minors, eclipsed only by e-cigarettes.

Nicotine pouches, also known as sachets, are small, white rectangles filled with a powder laced with nicotine and often flavored with other ingredients. Users place them between their lip and gum to release nicotine into the bloodstream.

In November 2023, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety reported that advertising for nicotine pouches and similar products is rampant across social media, where young consumers are being targeted.

The health ministry’s new rule classifies nicotine as a “toxic substance,” citing public health risks such as addiction and bouts of “acute nicotinic syndromes,” which in some severe cases can lead to prolonged vomiting with risk of dehydration, seizures and other debilitating side effects.

Chewing tobacco, medications and medical devices used to quit smoking — such as certain types of nicotine gums and inhalers — will not be subject to the ban, according to the French government.

The ban, which took effect April 1, also doesn’t apply to cigarettes or vape products.

European nations including Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have all moved to ban or tightly restrict the sale of nicotine pouches, but France is so far the only country to criminalize their use or possession.

Swedish Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa hit back at France’s crackdown on nicotine pouches, saying it’s as “if we would prohibit French baguettes or French wine in Sweden,” he told the Financial Times.

“It is absurd.”