Countries Where Vapes Are Banned in 2026: The Full List

36 countries ban vapes outright. Dozens more have clamped down hard, and the list grows every year. Planning a trip abroad? Just want to know where vaping's illegal? Either way, here's what we found.

Bans don't all work the same way. Some countries have outlawed vapes entirely - can't sell them, can't import them, can't even carry one through the airport. Others have only gone after disposables. And a few technically allow vaping but make it so hard to buy anything that you'd struggle to tell the difference.

Looking for the UK ban? This page is about other countries. If you want to know what the UK banned and when, read our guide to the UK disposable vape ban. If you want to know how to carry a vape on a flight, read our guide to taking vapes on a plane.

Countries With a Complete Vape Ban

Every country in this section has made vaping illegal across the board - refillable kits, disposables, e-liquid, all of it. Some hand out fines. Others will lock you up.

Asia and the Middle East

Asia has some of the strictest and most actively enforced vape bans in the world. Thailand and Singapore are the big ones UK travellers need to worry about.

The Americas

Latin and Central America account for a big chunk of the global ban list. Enforcement is patchier than in Asia, but the laws are on the books.

Africa

Fewer countries on this list, but the bans are real.

Central Asia

Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan both rolled out full bans recently. These are newer additions to the list.

Other

That is 36 countries where it is illegal to sell, import, or in many cases simply carry a vape through customs.

A note on the numbers you will see elsewhere. Most "countries where vaping is banned" lists you will find online quote 46, and trace back to a single WHO-derived factsheet built on pre-2022 data. We checked it. It is out of date: it still lists Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon as ban countries, and all three have legalised. We count 38 because we verified every country against its own government, customs and tobacco-control law rather than copying the list everyone else copies. Where the position is genuinely unclear, like the Seychelles, we say so instead of guessing.

Countries That Only Ban Disposable Vapes

More and more countries have gone after single-use disposable vapes specifically, while keeping refillable and rechargeable kits perfectly legal. If you're on a pod kit or prefilled pod vape, none of this affects you.

Just to be clear: the UK disposable ban covers every brand. Crystal vapes, Elf Bars, Lost Marys, Hayatis - if it's single-use, it's gone. Only rechargeable and refillable kits are still legal to sell.

The EU is also pushing through a regulation banning all products with non-replaceable built-in batteries, expected by February 2027. Once that lands, most current disposable vape designs will be illegal across every EU member state.

Countries Where Vapes Are Legal But Heavily Regulated

Not every country fits neatly into "banned" or "not banned." These places let you vape, but the hoops you've got to jump through make it complicated.

Australia changed in October 2024 and most guides have not caught up. Adults over 18 can now buy a therapeutic vape up to 20mg/ml from a pharmacy without a prescription. Above 20mg/ml you still need one. There is no legal retail market outside pharmacies, and the eye-watering penalties you will see quoted, up to 7 years and millions in fines, are for commercial import and supply, not for a tourist with one device.

Turkey bans the sale, not the vape. Nothing is licensed for sale, so shops cannot legally stock anything. You can bring your own and use it, but there is a customs limit: one device, plus either 30ml of liquid or three disposables. Read the full Turkey guide.

Japan bans nicotine-containing e-liquid because it's classed as a pharmaceutical product. Nicotine-free vapes are fine to sell. Flying in with your own kit? You can bring up to 120ml of nicotine e-liquid for personal use.

The United States regulates vapes through the FDA, but rules vary wildly from state to state. California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have banned flavoured vapes. You've got to be 21 to buy anything vape-related, no matter which state you're in.

EU countries all follow the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), so you're looking at a 20mg/ml nicotine cap, 2ml max tank size, 10ml max bottle size, and health warnings on every pack. Some countries go further on top of that. The Netherlands has banned every e-liquid flavour except tobacco. Denmark allows tobacco and menthol.

Why Are So Many Countries Banning Vapes?

Youth vaping is what kicked most of this off. Disposables made it dead easy for teenagers to pick up the habit - cheap, sweet-flavoured, and zero maintenance. That's driven most of the bans across Asia, the Middle East, and increasingly Europe too.

Environmental waste played a big part in the disposable-specific bans. Every single-use vape has a lithium battery, plastic casing, and leftover chemicals inside it. Before the UK ban, roughly 8 million of them were getting binned every week.

Then there's the money angle. A handful of countries ban vapes because their governments make a fortune from cigarette tax revenue. For them, vaping isn't a health tool - it's competition.

Check Before You Travel

Laws change, enforcement changes, and a list is out of date the moment a parliament votes. Two minutes before you pack is all it takes.

Our Vaping Abroad checker gives you a country-by-country answer, including resorts like Dubai, Bali, Phuket, Cancun and Sharm el Sheikh where the rules follow the country rather than the resort. If your destination is not covered there, the government's own travel advice page for that country is the place to look.

You can look up any single destination, including ones not listed here, in our Vaping Abroad country checker.

Two related guides worth reading before you fly. For hand luggage rules, e-liquid limits and airline policies, see our guide to taking vapes on a plane. For what the UK banned and when, see our guide to the UK disposable vape ban.