Illegal cigarettes, snus widely available in Rotterdam convenience stores

Cigarettes are widely available at convenience stores and small supermarkets in Rotterdam, even though these stores aren’t allowed to sell tobacco products. Snus is also easily found, AD discovered when going undercover at local stores.

The sale of snus, pouches of sucking tobacco with high nicotine content placed under the upper lip, has been banned in the Netherlands since January 2025. AD found snus in 12 of the over 30 stores it visited, sometimes hidden under the counter, sometimes in a back room. According to the shopkeepers, the target group is mainly high school students. Snus goes for around €10 a piece.

Illegal foreign citizens are widely available in the Rotterdam convenience stores. At one store in Rotterdam-Zuid, the newspaper’s journalists bought a packet of cigarettes from Luxembourg for €7.50, about €6 less than a Dutch pack.

For both illegal cigarettes and snus, the shopkeepers readily sold the prohibited items, provided that the journalists paid cash.

According to the newspaper, the strict rules surrounding the sale of tobacco made little impression on Rotterdam shopkeepers. “I need to pay closer attention, man,” a young vendor said when the journalist identified themself as such. Another vendor refused to speak another word, and a few turned hostile.

Wanda de Kanter, a pulmonologist and activist against the tobacco industry, is alarmed by the newspaper’s findings. “Shops alerted to the illegal sale of certain products are punished with minimal fines. This keeps the tobacco industry alive,” she told AD.

The municipality of Rotterdam told AD that it is conducting on the trade in illegal tobacco products.