South America: Market data & legal analysis of the nicotine sector

13th November 2024: Peru: The bill regulating tobacco, vaping and other nicotine products, such as pouches, was published yesterday (12th November) in the State Bulletin and is now in force. It regulates the sale, advertising and public usage of heated tobacco and nicotine pouches. In the case of heated tobacco, it completely bans its advertising, while for nicotine pouches it is limited. It also establishes packaging requirements, such as health warnings and a prohibition on the description of flavours on the package or label that may seem attractive to under-18s.
23rd October 2024: Argentina: Philip Morris International (PMI) is hoping that the Argentinian government, led by president Javier Milei after the elections in October 2023, reverses the ban on heated tobacco products (HTPs) and liberalises the national market, press reports. As forecasted in our Policy Radar, Milei’s pro-market and liberalist view could mean the reversal of the ban imposed by the Ministry of Health in March 2023. Two weeks ago, manager of PMI’s South-America cluster Demian Pintos said in an interview that the company is in talks with the government to explore the possibility of reversing the ban.
18th October 2024: Brazil: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will suspend the National Registry of Legal Entities (CNPJ) ID of the establishments that sell, display, store or transport electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products (HTPs) or any other prohibited related products in order to fight illegal activities. Without the CNPJ, companies will not be able to carry out commercial or financial activities. The measure will take effect on 25th October.
14th October 2024: Peru: A bill regulating tobacco and nicotine products has been approved at the parliament on its second vote. The bill aims to regulate the sale, advertising and public usage of heated tobacco products (HTPs) and nicotine pouches. It also establishes packaging requirements. The bill must now be signed by the president before entering into force.
4th October 2024: Americas: The Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) – the specialised international health agency for the region of the Americas within the World Health Organization (WHO) – has adopted a new strategy to strengthen tobacco control in the region, setting out different objectives for 2030. The strategy aims to increase the number of countries in the region adopting tobacco control measures. Measures could include establishing regulatory measures for novel tobacco and nicotine products, adopting smoke-free measures, enacting legislation to introduce large health warnings (covering at least 50% of the main surfaces of packaging) for tobacco products, introducing plain packaging for tobacco products or adopting a complete advertising ban.
23rd September 2024: Peru: A bill regulating tobacco and nicotine products has been approved in Parliament on its first vote. The bill aims to regulate the sale, advertising and public usage of heated tobacco products (HTPs) and nicotine pouches. It also establishes packaging requirements. The bill must now be approved on a second vote, which will take place next week.
4th September 2024: Brazil: The Senate Economic Affairs Committee's vote on the bill to regulate e-cigarettes with and without nicotine and heated tobacco products didn't make it onto the agenda for yesterday's (3rd September) session, press reports. A new date for the debate on the bill has not yet been set.
3rd September 2024: Paraguay: Tomorrow (4th September), the Senate will debate a bill, introduced by a single member of the parliament from the ruling party, that would comprehensively regulate heated tobacco products (HTPs), regardless of their nicotine content. Provisions would include product and ingredient restrictions (similar to the ones envisaged in the European Tobacco Products Directive), reporting obligations, labelling requirements and advertising, age and public usage restrictions
21st August 2024: Brazil: The Senate Committee on Economic Affairs removed bill 5008/2023 from yesterday’s vote schedule. The bill would legalise e-cigarettes with and without nicotine, heated tobacco products (HTPs) and herbal heated products, and would introduce a regulatory framework for all of these products. Bill 5008/2023 should return to the committee’s agenda on 3rd September. If voted favourably, the bill still has a long path ahead.
20th August 2024: Brazil: Today, the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs will vote on bill 5008/2023. The bill would legalise e-cigarettes with and without nicotine, heated tobacco products (HTPs) and herbal heated products, and would introduce a regulatory framework for all of these products. If voted favourably, the bill still has a long path ahead as it would need to be considered in plenary by senators and then reviewed by the Chamber of Deputies.
2nd August 2024: Brazil: The Senate Committee on Economic Affairs is scheduled to vote on the bill to regulate the production, import, export and marketing of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco on 20th August. The bill still needs to be approved by selected Senate committees.
30th July 2024: Venezuela: Presidential elections took place on Sunday (28th July), allegedly resulting in the re-election of president Nicolás Maduro by 51% of the votes – compared with 44% for Edmundo González, his main opposition rival – press reports. The opposition claims that the election results have been altered and that González has more than 70% of the electorate’s support and should therefore be declared as president. Protests are erupting in the country. If, eventually, Maduro is officially invested as president, the ban on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco will be maintained in the long term. In the hypothetical scenario of González eventually becoming president, however, it would significantly raise hopes of the ban being lifted. Although González has not made any statements regarding these products, his party’s more pro-market stance could make it more prone to liberalise sales than the current regime.

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