Austria’s pouch label rules are in force: what § 10h changed
Austria wrote tobacco-free nicotine pouches into the TNRSG by name. The labelling article has applied since 20 August 2026 — and one of its rules removes the flavour name from the front of almost every can on the market.
Austria’s tax and monopoly changes got the attention. The labelling article arrived quietly and matters more to anyone printing a can: BGBl. I Nr. 68/2026 inserted § 10h into the Tabak- und Nichtraucherinnen- bzw. Nichtraucherschutzgesetz (TNRSG), and it has applied since 20 August 2026.
Your product is now named in the law
§ 1 Z 14 defines a tabakfreies Nikotinerzeugnis as any tobacco-free product containing nicotine intended for intake by inhaling, snuffing, sucking, chewing, oral, dermal or other absorption — unless it is an e-cigarette, a refill container, a liquid or a herbal smoking product. § 1 Z 1e then folds it into verwandte Erzeugnisse, which is what makes the rest of the act apply. Most European acts never say this, and reach a pouch only by accident.
Two strings, not one — and a position, not a percentage
§ 10h Abs. 2 requires two separate German texts on every pack and every outer packaging: a health warning, and a second, distinct information message about who the product is not for. Printing one and not the other is the common failure, because most markets mandate only a warning.
Abs. 3 then does something unusual: it fixes a position rather than a share of the surface. There is no coverage percentage to hit in Austria — but a warning placed where a designer would naturally put it does not satisfy the article.
The pack itself has a minimum size
§ 2 Abs. 2a sets a minimum number of consumption units per pack. A small trial can that is lawful elsewhere in Europe cannot be sold in Austria at all — this is a product decision, not a label one, and it is the rule most likely to remove a SKU outright.
The flavour name comes off the front
The act does not allow the pack to advertise its flavour. A can whose front is the flavour name — which is most of the market — has to be redesigned for Austria rather than relabelled.
And the clock before launch
Notification is not a formality here: the maker or importer must notify the ministry months before the intended launch and may not place the product on the market until that period has run. A launch date set without counting it backwards is a launch date that slips.
The two German strings in full, exactly where on the pack they go, the mandatory on-pack data list, the pack minimum and the notification period are in the Austria label spec — or upload your artwork and have it checked against all of it.
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