LATEST ALERTSUnited Arab Emirates: The UAE Federal Tax Authority has issued a press release stressing its commitment to enforcing the Digital Tax Stamp (DTS) on tobacco products. The authority explained that control efforts resulted in the seizure and confiscation of nearly 5.5m units of tobacco products that did not conform to specifications, and it assured that it will increase efforts to control the markets and ensure the correct implementation of the excise tax. It’s worth noting that all tobacco products should bear the DTS.
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Denmark: The Consumer Ombudsman reported to the police that a newspaper advertised a brand of nicotine pouches in violation of the Tobacco Advertising Act, which forbids any tobacco surrogates from being advertised, including in printed publications. According to the Ombudsman, the fact that the advertising was done through an automatic purchasing channel (such as banner ads) using algorithms does not absolve companies of their responsibilities to comply with the law.
US - Michigan: House Bill (HB) 6108 has been signed into law by the governor. This bill amends state law to raise the legal age to purchase a tobacco product, vapour product or an alternative nicotine product from 18 to 21, in accordance with federal law.
22nd July 2022 - Paraguay, South America |
Paraguay: On 18th July 2022 president Mario Abdo approved Paraguay’s ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, an international treaty adopted in 2012 by parties to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) with the objective of eliminating all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products. The country’s accession to the protocol might pave the way for the future enactment of new requirements applicable to tobacco products.
Jordan: The House of Representatives has referred a government-drafted bill of child rights to a joint committee of the Women and Family Affairs Committee and the Legal Committee. The bill proposes fines ranging from JOD 100 ($140) to JOD 300 ($420) for smoking or using other forms of tobacco in front of children, including by parents or family members. Under Public Health Law No. 47/2008 and the Standards for tobacco and nicotine products, including electronic ones all tobacco use, including sucking, chewing or inhaling, are considered equivalent to smoking.
21st July 2022 - Czech Republic, Europe |
Czech Republic: The government has rejected recent parliamentary proposals to ban the sale of nicotine pouches to under-18s and to introduce public place usage and advertising restrictions, media reports. The Ministry of Health is currently preparing regulation for nicotine pouches and the government believes it is better to cover the issue comprehensively rather than through a number of individual bills.
20th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - federal: US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Robert Califf has ordered an external review of the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), citing a “series of challenges that have tested our regulatory frameworks and stressed the agency’s operations”.
Malaysia: A poll of 40 members of Malaysia’s lower parliamentary chamber the Dewan Rakyat found only 12 said they would vote in favour of a bill banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 2005. Another 26 said they would decide how they would vote after the publication of the draft bill. The report by CodeBlue, a newspaper specialising in health matters, says most of those as yet uncommitted “appeared to lean towards opposing the tobacco bill in its current form, as they expressed various concerns with the proposed generational ban”.
20th July 2022 - Russia |
Russia: The bill setting future tax rates has been adopted and published, increasing excise rates for for heated tobacco consumables and devices from 2025 by 4%. Heating devices will be taxed at RUB 70 (€1.20), and consumables at RUB 8,479 (€151) per kg in 2025.
20th July 2022 - Europe |
EU: Polish MEP Krzysztof Jurgiel of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group last week submitted a parliamentary question to the European Commission questioning the Commission’s right to define new product categories in the Commission Delegated Directive setting out the EU ban on flavoured heated tobacco products. Jurgiel said: “These actions [introducing a new legal category in a delegated act] may constitute a breach of the founding treaties and the settled case-law of the CJEU [European Court of Justice], according to which Delegated Acts shall not amend essential features of the main act”, in this case the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). He questioned why the EC plans to ban flavoured heated tobacco products within 11 months, when the period for combustible cigarettes was four years.
US - California: Attorney general Rob Bonta yesterday announced $22m in state funding for local government agencies to tackle the illegal sale of tobacco products, especially to minors. He said the Department of Justice’s Tobacco Grant Program would give local agencies “the funding they need to keep our children healthy and hold tobacco retailers accountable”. Any local agencies with authority to enforce tobacco-related state laws or local ordinances are eligible to apply.
Ireland: The Oireachtas (parliament) Joint Health Committee is considering regulating nicotine pouches and heated tobacco. The committee has published a report containing submissions by stakeholders during pre-legislative scrutiny of the Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill 2019, along with its own recommendations in relation to each of the submitted proposals. These include a recommendation that nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products, whose popularity has increased in Europe, should be regulated under the bill.
19th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - general: Major tobacco companies have reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice regarding tobacco-related health messages at retail locations, the convenience retail association NACS reports. The agreement requires Altria, Philip Morris USA, RJ Reynolds Tobacco and ITG Brands to supply court-ordered signs to stores they have contracts with and require those stores to post them for 21 months. A hearing on the proposed agreement will be held in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on 28th and 29th July, at which point the court will decide whether to accept it.
19th July 2022 - Europe |
EU: Tomorrow, 20th July, is the last day to submit feedback on the initiative to review the Council of the European Union’s 2009 recommendation on smoke-free environments. The initiative seeks to extend the recommendation to cover emerging products and to increase its scope to include additional outdoor spaces such as schools and playgrounds.
18th July 2022 - Europe |
EU: The Council of the European Union has told TobaccoIntelligence that the Agriculture and Fisheries Council agreed today to extend by two months the scrutiny period during which objections can be raised to the Commission Delegated Directive setting out an EU ban on flavoured heated tobacco products. The scrutiny period will end on 30th October instead of 30th August as initially planned, leading to a delay in implementation of the ban.
US - California: Millbrae City Council intends to prepare an ordinance that would prohibit the sale of flavoured tobacco products within the city, which lies in the San Francisco Bay Area and has a population of just over 23,000. Millbrae is in San Mateo County, where sales of flavoured tobacco products and e-cigarettes have been banned in unincorporated areas since 2018. The county intends to update its Tobacco Retailer Permit Ordinance to specifically include synthetic nicotine products and non-nicotine e-cigarettes and to place stipulations on where new retailers can be located. A Californian referendum over a state-wide flavour ban is still pending.
US - Hawaii: House Bill (HB) 1570 has been vetoed by the governor. The version as it currently stands would ban the sale of flavoured tobacco products and deem it unlawful to mislabel as nicotine-free any e-liquid product that contains nicotine. The first versions of the bill explicitly banned the sale of flavoured synthetic nicotine products, but the current version after amendments does not.
Armenia: Yesterday, 14th July, the government approved the plan to combat the use of tobacco products and tobacco substitutes for 2022-2026, media reports. The plan is expected to protect current and future generations from the corrosive effects of tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke, as well as significantly reduce the prevalence of tobacco use. Among other things, the plan seeks to develop the requirements for uniform packaging of such products, revise their tax policy, and provide mechanisms to exclude tobacco industry interference in tobacco control policies.
14th July 2022 - Europe |
EU: Sources within the European Union told TobaccoIntelligence that yesterday (13th July) the Permanent Representatives Committee approved the request from the Working Party on Public Health to recommend that the Council of the European Union extend by two months the scrutiny period to discuss the Commission Delegated Directive amending the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) to establish a flavouring ban for heat-not-burn (HnB) products. The final decision to approve the extension of the scrutiny period will be discussed by the Agriculture Council on Monday 18th July, according to our sources.
14th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - federal: New warning letters have been issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Among them is the warning: “Please be aware that, on 15th March 2022, the president signed legislation to amend the FD&C [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic] Act to extend FDA’s jurisdiction to products ‘containing nicotine from any source’, not just nicotine derived from tobacco”; thus, the FDA has started to send out warning letters about synthetic nicotine products.
14th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - general: The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enforce the congressionally mandated deadline and clear the market of any synthetic nicotine products that had not obtained FDA authorisation by yesterday, 13th July. It emphasised that a growing number of e-cigarette manufacturers have increasingly switched to using synthetic nicotine since the FDA acted against flavoured products made with tobacco-derived nicotine.
Malaysia: The Cabinet yesterday approved the Tobacco and Smoking Control Bill that sets out to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born in or after 2005, press reports. The Cabinet’s approval allows health minister Khairy Jamaluddin to table the bill in Parliament, which he intends to do during the upcoming session, which begins on Monday, 18th July.
13th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - general: Today, 13th July, is the final date for synthetic nicotine products to be marketed in the US without a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) having been submitted by 14th May. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been criticised for its statement that it could not say how many companies selling such products had submitted an application – making it impossible to estimate the real number of illegal products on the market, media reports. Senator Dick Durbin said: “It seems that the FDA is unable to implement processes for monitoring the market and neglects its duty to ensure compliance with the law.” Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said: “If FDA allowed products to remain on the market that didn’t file an application, it is both directly contrary to the law and puts America’s kids at risk.” Lawyer Azim Chowdhury said he expected the FDA “to go after big companies known for marketing to kids, and hopes the agency does not try to put small vape shops out of business”.
13th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - federal: The American Vapor Manufacturers Association has formally asked the inspector general of the US Department of Health and Human Services to investigate “unethical political interference between Congress and FDA”. Specifically it queries whether the commissioner was aware that the FDA’s Juul decision was based on incomplete information; calls for all correspondence between the commissioner and members of Congress (including senator Dick Durbin and representative Raja Krishnamoorthi) to be made public; and also for other communications between the commissioner and a Wall Street Journal reporter, between him and his immediate predecessor, and between any FDA officials and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Parents Against Vaping to be made public.
Spain: The National Committee for Smoking Prevention (CNPT) has published a statement expressing concern about the widely reported decision of the Ministry of Health to stop work on an amendment of the Tobacco Act. The CNPT, which is the leading anti-tobacco organisation in Spain and is associated with medical and health organisations, is urging the ministry to confirm whether or not it will indeed abandon its legislative plans. It also insists on the need to approve laws that reduce nicotine and tobacco consumption and asks the ministry about the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2021-2025, which was meant to have been approved already. Both the Tobacco Act amendment and the prevention and control plan were intended to impose further restrictions on both tobacco and vaping products.
Spain: The Ministry of Health has decided not to continue with its planned amendment to the Tobacco Act, press reports. The government has decided there is not enough time before its term ends at the end of 2023 to undertake the reform, which would have banned smoking on open-air terraces, in cars with children or pregnant women present, and in open-air stadiums. It would also have established neutral packaging and further restricted the advertising of tobacco and vaping products. The amendment was framed within the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2021-2025, which was meant to be approved by June 2022 and now presumably will not be approved.
12th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - federal: Tomorrow, 13th July, is the last day for synthetic nicotine products to be marketed in the US without a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submitted by 14th May. While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will maintain enforcement discretion, it will be illegal after tomorrow to distribute such products without a PMTA.
12th July 2022 - Asia, Philippines |
Philippines: The Presidential Office has confirmed to TobaccoIntelligence that it received the Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation Bill, which will further regulate heated tobacco products, on 24th June, six days before president Bongbong Marcos took office. If the president does not act on a bill submitted by Congress, it lapses into law after 30 days of receipt.
Hungary: The Supervisory Authority for Regulatory Activities (SZFTH) has provided TobaccoIntelligence with sales data on heated tobacco products, chewing tobacco and nicotine pouches. In 2021, 1.6bn sticks of heated tobacco were sold, twice the 2020 figure. From January through May 2022, 996m heated tobacco sticks were sold. Sales of chewing tobacco fell with the introduction of nicotine pouches to the Hungarian market, from 1.4 tonnes in 2019 to 269 kg in 2020, 776 kg in 2021 and 326 kg for the first five months of 2022. There were 8.2 tonnes of nicotine pouches sold in 2021, up from 1.8 tonnes in 2020. In the first five months of 2022, nicotine pouch sales amounted to 5.2 tonnes.
12th July 2022 - Europe |
EU: The European Council of Ministers' Working Party on Public Health has requested a two-month extension of scrutiny on the Commission Delegated Directive amending the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) to establish a flavourings ban for heat-not-burn (HnB) products. The Permanent Representatives Committee, which meets tomorrow, will decide whether or not to recomend the Council to allow the extra time.
12th July 2022 - Asia, Kazakhstan |
11th July 2022 - Asia, Saudi Arabia |
Saudi Arabia: The National Committee for Tobacco Control has tweeted that the Islamic pilgrimage season, the Hajj, is an opportunity to quit smoking, and stressed that under the Anti-Smoking Law Royal Decree No. (M/56)/2015 it is prohibited to consume any tobacco product in religious areas, including squares and places surrounding mosques.
11th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - federal: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received more than 110,000 comments on the proposed rule prohibiting menthol cigarettes and around 60,000 comments on the proposed rule that would prohibit characterising flavours in cigars. Opponents of the bill, including business owners and tobacco retailers, wrote that it would directly impact their profit. One wrote: “This ban targets a significant portion of my revenue; menthol cigarettes alone make up 36 percent of all cigarette sales in the United States.” Supporters regard it as a necessary step toward health equity. The comment period has been extended by the FDA from 5th July to 2nd August.
11th July 2022 - North America, United States |
US - federal: A US district judge from Washington DC has ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s decision to deem the category of “premium cigars” as tobacco products, and not exempt them from the deeming rule, is arbitrary and capricious.
Iceland: A bill amending Law 87/2018 on electronic cigarettes and refills has today come into force. The law makes nicotine pouches subject to the same regulations as e-cigarettes, including age restrictions, product restrictions, labelling and packaging requirements, notification requirements, public usage and advertising restrictions. It also makes the sale of nicotine products subject to licensing by the Housing and Civil Engineering Institute. Some labelling restrictions will apply from 1st September.
Ukraine: From today the use of heated tobacco is banned in the same places where smoking is prohibited.
Pakistan: The government has raised the threshold under which expensive cigarette brands are taxed at the same time it has raised the excise duty rate applicable, press reports. Ziauddin Islam, former tobacco control expert at the Ministry of Health, has criticised the measure, saying that it will lead to an increase in smoking prevalence since it is seen as a tax relief. Changes to the tax regime are not applicable to novel tobacco products such as heated tobacco. Previously, the excise duty was set at PKR1,650 (€7.50) per 1,000 cigarettes, if the retail price of the cigarettes was over PKR5,960 (€27.50) per 1,000 sticks. With the amendment, in order to apply the new excise duty of PKR1,850 (€8.50), the retail price of the cigarettes has to be more than PKR6,660 (€30.50) per 1,000 sticks.
8th July 2022 - Paraguay, South America |
Paraguay: On 6th July the Chamber of Deputies approved the country’s ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, an international treaty adopted in 2012 by parties to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The ratification was approved by the Senate on 23rd May 2022, as we previously reported on, and it now awaits the president’s approval or veto.
Iceland: On 1st July the Ministry of Health made its legislative plans to amend the Tobacco Control Act following the incorporation of the European Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) into the EEA Agreement in February 2022 open for comments via the consultation portal. The legislative plans seek to implement the European TPD into the Icelandic legislative framework, although no bill has been disclosed yet, as the proposed changes will be made public after the consultation period. The bill is scheduled to be presented during the 2022 autumn session. The consultation period ends on 29th July 2022.
Malaysia: The minister of health said today, 8th July, that the bill banning the sale of tobacco products to all those born after 1st January 2005 that we previously reported on will be presented to the cabinet next week, before it is tabled in the parliament later this month, press reports. The minister further stated that the bill will envisage jail terms for the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 1st January 2005, but that possession will not be punished with incarceration.
7th July 2022 - Asia, Saudi Arabia |
Saudi Arabia: The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority has introduced an initial draft through the Public Consultation Platform, proposing amendments to the executive bylaw on excise tax. It suggests that a warehouse should be eligible for licensing as a tax warehouse if it acquires an average of 250,000 units of alternative tobacco products, rather than the current 500,000. The authority has until 30th July to discuss the amendments before accepting them.
7th July 2022 - Brazil, South America |
Brazil: The board of the National Public Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) decided unanimously at an extraordinary meeting yesterday, 6th July, to maintain the existing ban on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco. The agency will now prepare a regulatory draft that will be sent to the body’s governing body, the college, for deliberation. The college will later decide whether or not to open the draft for a public consultation.
7th July 2022 - Europe, United Kingdom |
UK: Junior health minister Maggie Throup has told MPs that the Committee on Toxicity of Food, Consumer Products and the Environment will consider its draft statement on the toxicological risks associated with nicotine pouches at its July meeting. “It is estimated that a final statement will be available by autumn 2022,” she added.
7th July 2022 - Europe |
EU: The European Council’s public health working party will tomorrow discuss tomorrow the Commission delegated directive applying the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) flavour ban to heated tobacco. The discussion comes within the two-month scrutiny period that the delegated directive has to undergo, during which both the Council and the European Parliament can either veto it or inform the Commission that that they have no objections, prematurely ending the two-month period.
6th July 2022 - Asia, Philippines |
Philippines: Presidential spokesperson Trixie Cruz-Angeles has told reporters that the new president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, has given no indication of whether or not he supports the Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation Bill, which would change regulations on vaping and heated tobacco products. Bills approved by the former Congress lapse into law if the president fails to act on it within 30 days of receiving it. The presidential office has not confirmed to TobaccoIntelligence when the bill was received.
Romania: The Ministry of Finance has introduced a bill to progressively increase the excise duty on heated tobacco products. It proposes a rate of RON594.97 (€120.29) per kg in 2022; RON834.63 (€168.75) per kg in 2023; RON1,094.93 (€221.38) per kg in 2024; RON1,146.62 (€231.83) per kg in 2025; and RON1,198.28 (€242.27) per kg in 2026. If the bill is approved, the new rate will come into force on 1st August and be updated on that date each year thereafter.
6th July 2022 - Brazil, South America |
Brazil: The National Public Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) was to discuss the regulation of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco in an extraordinary meeting today, 6th July. The public meeting was called to consider information and comments received during a public consultation, which closed on 10th June. In its preliminary report, published in April, the agency suggested that the existing ban should be maintained. No final decision is expected yet.
Belarus: The excise tax on heated tobacco rose on 1st July to BYR170.26 ($50.30) per kg under presidential decree №224. The rate will go up again from 1st October to the end of the year to BYR178.77 ($52.84) per kg.
5th July 2022 - Asia, Kazakhstan |
Kazakhstan: Jamilya Sadykova, leader of the national coalition “For a Smoke-Free Kazakhstan”, is suing Philip Morris Kazakhstan over sponsorship and inappropriate advertising of heated tobacco, media reports. The Special Economic Court of the Almaty Region has reportedly accepted the claim against the Iqos manufacturer.
4th July 2022 - Europe |
EU: EU law requires certain large companies to disclose information on the way they operate and manage social and environmental challenges. The European Council and Parliament have reached an agreement on the rules of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which will impact listed EU and non-EU companies operating in the region, with a turnover of more than €150m. Among more detailed reporting requirements, it requires large companies to report on sustainability issues such as environmental, social and human rights and governance factors, and to have their reported sustainability information independently audited.
