Market & legal data for global tobacco and nicotine alternatives worldwide

10th June 2024: Global: The World Health Organization (WHO) has made public the dates in which the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the fourth session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP4) to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products will take place. COP11 will take place during the week of 17th November 2025 at the Geneva International Conference Centre, while the MOP4 will be held during the week of 24th November 2025 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
31st May 2024: Global: Today, as every year on 31st May, is World No Tobacco Day. The focus of this year’s campaign is tobacco companies’ tactics to target under-age consumers, in particular through the use of social media campaigns and influencers, and their greenwashing tactics. The World Health Organization (WHO) has posted: “37m youth aged 13-15 use tobacco globally. This World No Tobacco Day, it is time to speak out and step in!” The WHO has published a report “on how tobacco targets youth to cash in profits, creating a new wave of addiction”.
27th May 2024: Global: The focus of this year’s World Health Organization (WHO) World No Tobacco Day (31st May) is to “give a platform to young people across the world, who are urging governments to shield them from predatory tobacco marketing tactics”. It goes on to say that “the industry targets youth for a lifetime of profits, creating a new wave of addiction. Children are using e-cigarettes at rates higher than adults in all regions and globally an estimated 37m youth aged 13 to 15 years use tobacco.”
24th May 2024: Global: Yesterday (23rd May), the World Health Organization (WHO) released a new report “highlighting how the tobacco and nicotine industry designs products, implements marketing campaigns and works to shape policy environments to help them addict the world’s youth”. The report says the tobacco and nicotine industry uses enticing flavours, colourful designs and marketing strategies as an attempt to addict young people. During the report’s press release, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, in relation to the harm-reduction argument: “how can they talk about harm reduction when they are marketing these dangerous, highly addictive products to children”. The WHO urges governments to ban or tightly regulate novel tobacco and nicotine products. Tight measures include banning flavours, banning their advertising and higher taxes, among others.
6th May 2024: Global: At the recent meeting of the Fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) to develop an international treaty on ending plastic pollution, held in Ottawa, countries made progress in identifying the types of plastics that should be prohibited globally, media reports. Among the items that topped the list were cigarette filters. At the meeting, Peru, Panama, and Switzerland urged for a ban on cigarette filters, a call which was also supported by the World Health Organization. It was stated that recycling cigarette filters is not a viable solution, and it is essential to focus on human rights and demand a healthy environment. The list of plastics to be banned will be finalised at INC-5, starting 25th November 2024, in Busan, South Korea.
25th April 2024: EU: Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) in Europe issued a media release saying that e-cigarette use is becoming increasingly popular among adolescents. The organisation draws attention to the fact that e-cigarettes have surpassed conventional cigarettes in popularity among 15-year-olds, and that this “calls for targeted interventions to address this emerging public health concern”. The WHO also calls for the urgent implementation of several measures on nicotine and tobacco products: increasing excise taxes; limiting available retail channels; banning all flavour agents, including menthol and synthetic menthol analogues; and enforcing a comprehensive ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship on mainstream and social media.
14th February 2024: Global: The tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) has recently concluded with a decision to protect the environment and people's health from the harmful effects of tobacco. Parties have been asked to consider the environmental impacts of tobacco products and to improve the implementation of related policies for environmental protection. This includes the problem of cigarette (and presumably heated tobacco) filters, which can release plastic and harmful chemicals. In addition, COP10 has made more robust guidelines for tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.
16th January 2024: Global: The World Health Organization (WHO) released a report today on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000-2030. The report concludes that 2022 has shown a continued decrease in tobacco use rates globally. According to the latest estimates from the WHO, there are 1.25bn adult tobacco users. While the WHO South-East Asian region currently shows the highest population percentage using tobacco (26.5%), the report foresees that, by 2030, the WHO European region will have the highest rates globally (over 23%).
20th December 2023: Global: Several EU and international markets will see a rise in heated tobacco taxes on 1st January 2024, including Indonesia, Bulgaria, Russia and Estonia. Further information is available in our compliance calendar.
28th November 2023: World: The tenth Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), due to be held this month in Panama and postponed due to the country's “current security situation”, was rescheduled. It will be held from 5th to 10th February 2024.
9th November 2023: World: The tenth Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) has been postponed to 2024. COP10 was due to be held this month in Panama, but will now be held there at an undetermined date in 2024, according to FCTC authorities. They attributed the delay to “the current security situation in Panama”.
13th October 2023: Global: International E-waste Day is celebrated tomorrow (14th October). The yearly awareness-raising day initiated by the WEEE Forum, an international association of organisations of electronics manufacturers and importers, aims to highlight the growing issue of e-waste and promote responsible e-waste management. Products with electrical or electronic components, including vaping or heated tobacco devices with batteries, should be part of the recycling stream.

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