Teenagers in the Netherlands can still buy illegal nicotine products via Snapchat, despite promises by the platform to block dealers, anti-tobacco campaigners said on Wednesday

Doctors working with the Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd, a foundation set up to stop youngsters smoking, say Snapchat’s promised measures have had no effect. The foundation is now turning to the consumer watchdog ACM, which can impose fines.

In June, the foundation sent an urgent briefing to Snapchat, accusing the company of failing to protect Dutch children from vape dealers and promotional content.

It referred to Snapchat’s obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to shield minors from online risks. Breaches can lead to fines of up to 6% of global annual turnover.

“Snapchat is extremely popular among teenagers and is being misused by dealers to promote vapes,” said lung doctor Wanda de Kanter at the time.

Doctors warn that Snapchat is fuelling a “vape epidemic” that began around 2021. A Trimbos Institute survey showed that by 2023, a quarter of 12 to 16-year-olds had tried vaping, with 14.3% using an e-cigarette in the past month and 4% doing so daily.

Flavoured disposable vapes have been banned in the Netherlands since January 2024, but they remain widely available on the black market, often with nicotine levels far above the legal limit.

On 8 August Snapchat finally responded, promising better slang and emoji detection, account blocks, parental controls and filters for teenagers. But doctors who oversaw a panel of 15 teenagers testing the platform before and after that date, said the measures failed.

Searches using words such as “vape” produced few results, but dealers could still be found with slang terms including snabba (snus), gerroes (cigarettes or joints), peuk and sigaret.

“We see that more and more young people are becoming seriously addicted to nicotine through these products, with major consequences for their mental and physical health,” said Daniëlle Cohen, lung pathologist at Leiden’s LUMC teaching hospital.

The ACM has the power to impose fines on Snapchat for failing to adhere to the DSA.