Israel’s sole cigarette manufacturer, Dubek Ltd., has filed a lawsuit in the High Court of Justice claiming that the Health Ministry is showing ‘favoritism’ by allowing Philip Morris International to market its heat-not-burn device, iQOS, on the domestic market, according to a story by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich for the Jerusalem Post, relayed by the TMA.
Dubek says that this is in violation of the law that restricts the advertising and marketing of tobacco products.
It says also that the Tax Authority does not levy sales taxes on iQOS, causing ‘a huge loss of revenue to the state coffers’.
The Health Minister, Ya’acov Litzman, reportedly said that the government would not regulate the sale of iQOS until the ‘FDA’ had ruled that the product was harmful.
Meanwhile, the Israel Medical Association’s Society for the Prevention of Smoking and Smoking Cessation said PMI had chosen Israel to be among the first countries to market iQOS, thus turning its population into ‘guinea pigs’ in a ‘huge experiment for which we will all pay’.