Author: Staff Writer

Duty-Free Fights Illicit Trade Allegations

Photo: Tea | Dreamstime.com
The Duty Free World Council (DFWC) is fighting suggestions that the duty-free industry is involved in the illicit trade of tobacco, reports The Moodie Davitt Report.
Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are due to discuss the global health body’s Illicit Trade Protocol (ITP) when they convene in The Hague in November. Article 13.2 of the ITP calls for an evidence-based study “to assess the extent to which duty free contributes to the illicit trade.”
DFWC President Sarah Branquinho said that the duty-free industry has a long history of working closely with customs and enforcement bodies to eradicate problems such as illicit trade, smuggling and counterfeiting and must be given the opportunity to cooperate and contribute further.
“There can be no justification for penalizing legitimate, law-abiding businesses under a pretext of controlling illicit trade,” said Branquinho during a briefing to the travel retail trade. “We are one of the most regulated sectors in the world.”
There can be no justification for penalizing legitimate, law-abiding businesses under a pretext of controlling illicit trade.
Sarah Branquinho, president, DFWC
Branquinho noted that duty-free retailers face substantial penalties from customs authorities “even if there’s the slightest discrepancy in stock reconciliation procedures … we have every incentive ourselves as retailers to ensure that there are no discrepancies,” she said.
Branquinho further emphasized that the duty-free industry fully supports the implementation of the provisions of the ITP. These include the establishment of licensing, due diligence, establishment of a tracking and tracing system, requirement of record keeping and security and preventive measures.
The duty-free category was worth more than $7.4 billion in 2019.
April 15, 2021
STG Approves Dividend, Elects Directors

Photo: STG
Scandinavian Tobacco Group held its annual general meeting this week.
Participants adopted the audited annual report and approved the board of directors’ proposal to pay a dividend of DKK6.50 ($1.05) per share of DKK1 for fiscal year 2020.
The remuneration report and the board of directors’ proposal for compensation of the board for financial year 2021 were both approved as well.
Share capital of the company will be reduced by canceling some of the company’s treasury shares of a nominal value of DKK2,500,000. After the reduction, the nominal value of the company’s share capital will be DKK97,500,000.
Company announcements will be released only in English going forward; the company’s release regarding the annual meeting results will be the last release in both Danish and English.
Nigel Northridge (chairman of the board), Henrik Brandt (vice chairman of the board), Dianne Blixt, Marlene Forsell, Claus Gregersen, Luc Missorten and Anders Obel were re-elected to the board of directors. Henrik Amsinck was newly elected to the board.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerskab was re-elected as auditor of the company.
April 15, 2021
U.K. Bans Nordic Spirit Video Game Ad

Photo: JTI
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a Nordic Spirit nicotine pouch ad for implying that the product has a mood-altering and stimulant effect, reports The Evening Standard.
The ad appeared on Crunchyroll, an anime streaming service, and depicted people using Gallaher’s Nordic Spirit pouches as they got ready to play an online video game. The players reacted enthusiastically to the game while online text read, “A new nicotine experience,” “great flavors,” “pocket-sized convenience” and “never miss a moment.”
There was small text on the screen throughout the advertisement stating that the product was for those 18-plus, that it contained nicotine and that nicotine is addictive.
Gallaher said the ad did not intend to target minors; according to the company, 85 percent of Crunchyroll’s audience was 18 years or older. The streaming service requires users to confirm that they are at least 16 years old.
The ASA found that the ad did not breach rules in respect of the ad being appropriately targeted to its audience. However, it did find that the product was not advertised responsibly.
The video ad was designed purely to emphasize the hands-free convenience of Nordic Spirit for existing adult nicotine users as an alternative to smoking cigarettes.
JTI
“We considered that the combination of the depiction of players using the product as they were about to start the game, the sense of anticipation created by music building to a drop and their reactions of excitement associated the use of the product with the game,” the ASA said. “These all implied that it had a mood-altering and stimulant effect, which would enhance enjoyment and gameplay. In the context of an ad for a product that contained nicotine, we considered that was irresponsible and breached the code.”
“We are disappointed with the finding that our advert for Nordic Spirit suggested that using the product made video gaming more fun and enjoyable and that the advert implied a mood-altering or stimulant effect,” said a spokesperson for Gallaher’s parent company, JTI. “The video ad was designed purely to emphasize the hands-free convenience of Nordic Spirit for existing adult nicotine users as an alternative to smoking cigarettes or using other nicotine-containing products.”
“While we maintain that at no point did our advert convey any mood-altering or stimulant effect, the ASA’s decision does provide some useful and clearer guidance to help ensure that ads for nicotine-containing products meet the ASA’s requirements.”
April 15, 2021
WHO Touts Benefits of Tobacco Taxation

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new technical manual on tobacco tax policy and administration that shows countries ways to cut down on more than $1.4 trillion in health expenditures and lost productivity due to tobacco use worldwide.
According to the global health body, improved tobacco taxation policies can also be a key component of “building back better” after Covid-19, where countries need additional resources to respond and to finance health system recovery.
“We launched this new manual to provide updated, clear and practical guidance for policymakers, finance officials, tax authorities, customs officials and others involved in tobacco tax policy to create and implement the strongest tobacco taxation policies for their specific countries,” said Jeremias N. Paul Jr., unit head for the fiscal policies for health team in the health promotion department at the WHO.
“We hope this document sheds light on the significant advantages to raising tobacco taxation. The data and insights provided here should be an eye opener for policymakers worldwide,” he said.

Only 14 percent of the world has enough tax on tobacco, according to the WHO.
“In 2018, only 38 countries covering 14 percent of the global population had sufficiently high tobacco taxes—which means taxing at least 75 percent of the price of these health-harming products,” the organization wrote in a press note. “By implementing proven policies like tobacco taxes, the costs created by the tobacco industry to local communities and nations can be avoidable. It is a win for population health, revenue and for development and equity.”
April 15, 2021
Concern Over Tobacco Takeover of Cannabis

Photo: Terre Di Cannabis from Pixabay
Big Tobacco must be prevented from utilizing “its profit-driven product engineering of addictive and deadly products, predatory marketing practices and anti-regulatory expertise” to dominate the legal cannabis industry, according to Andy Tan and Shaleen Title.
Writing in Tobacco Control, the academics say the tobacco industry has a demonstrated history of resisting government regulation, co-opting scientific experts, engineering tobacco products to be more addictive and using substantial marketing budgets to maximize sales and profits of its products. “If tobacco companies are permitted to dominate the legal cannabis industry, this will risk exacerbating public health harms on groups that are disproportionately harmed by tobacco use,” they write.
Driven by declining sales of tobacco products and spreading legalization of cannabis, the tobacco industry has been diversifying into cannabis in recent years.
In January 2016, Philip Morris International invested $20 million in Syqe Medical, which developed a medical cannabis inhaler. In June 2018, Imperial Brands invested in Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies.
In December 2018, Altria Group invested $1.8 billion in Cronos, a Canada-based multinational cannabis company. Imperial Brands in July 2019 acquired a stake in Auxly Cannabis.
If tobacco companies are permitted to dominate the legal cannabis industry, this will risk exacerbating public health harms.
Andy Tan and Shaleen Title
And just last month, British American Tobacco signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Organigram, a wholly owned subsidiary of publicly traded Organigram Holdings.
In their piece, Tan and Title urge authorities to restrict Big Tobacco’s participation in the cannabis industry, for example, by placing limits on the seizes of cannabis businesses by enforcing regulations on how many stores or plants one individual can own.
Tan is an associate professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
Title is a distinguished cannabis policy practitioner in residence at the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
April 14, 2021
Jujuy Province Eyes Cannabis as Cash Crop

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Governor Gerardo Morales has suggested that tobacco farmers in Argentina’s Jujuy Province begin growing cannabis to offset declining tobacco sales, reports The Buenos Aires Times.
“Cannabis is one of the most important projects that we have, and it’s going to generate more profits than lithium and solar energy,” said Morales, whose provincial government has worked to foster marijuana production in the region’s dry, sunny terrain for export.
“I hope that with this [growing cannabis market] we will begin a change in diversification and that 10 years from now we will stop planting tobacco and plant cannabis,” he said.
Tobacco producers, however, were not undividedly enthusiastic. Pedro Pascuttini, president of the Jujuy Tobacco Chamber, said his group would fight to continue producing tobacco.
He added, however, that the group was not completely closed to the idea. “We hope that it will be treated in a way in which they explain to us what it is about, and we are listened to,” he said.
Ten years from now, we will stop planting tobacco and plant cannabis.
Gerardo Morales, governor, Jujuy Province
Last month, Argentinean lawmakers sent a bill to legalize the production of medicinal cannabis to Congress after a decree authorized personal cultivation for the same purposes last year.
“The global industry for medical cannabis will treble its turnover in the next five years,” Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez predicted in March.
April 14, 2021
Cigarette-Level Nicotine May Reduce Exposure

Photo: Auremar | Dreamstime.com
E-cigarettes that deliver a cigarette-like amount of nicotine are associated with reduced smoking and reduced exposure to a major cancer-causing chemical in tobacco, even with concurrent smoking, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
“We found that e-cigarettes that delivered a similar amount of nicotine as traditional combustible cigarettes helped reduce smoking and exposure to a harmful carcinogen,” said Jonathan Foulds, a researcher at Penn State Cancer Institute and professor of public health sciences and psychiatry and behavioral health. “This study shows that when smokers interested in reduction are provided with an e-cigarette with cigarette-like nicotine delivery, they are more likely to achieve significant decreases in tobacco-related toxicants, such as lower exhaled carbon monoxide levels.”
The researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial of 520 participants who smoked more than nine cigarettes a day, were not currently using an e-cigarette device and were interested in reducing smoking but not quitting.

We found that e-cigarettes that delivered a similar amount of nicotine as traditional combustible cigarettes helped reduce smoking and exposure to a harmful carcinogen.
Jonathan Foulds, professor of public health sciences and psychiatry and behavioral health
According to Foulds, the findings represent an important addition to the scientific literature because they suggest that when e-cigarettes deliver nicotine effectively, smokers have greater success in reducing their smoking and tobacco-related toxicant exposure. Caroline Cobb, associate professor of psychology at VCU and lead author, said the study is important for two reasons.
“First, many e-cigarettes have poor nicotine-delivery profiles, and our results suggest that those products may be less effective in helping smokers change their behavior and associated toxicant exposure,” Cobb said.
“Second, previous randomized controlled trials examining if e-cigarettes help smokers change their smoking behavior and toxicant exposure have used e-cigarettes with low or unknown nicotine delivery profiles,” Cobb said. “Our study highlights the importance of characterizing the e-cigarette nicotine delivery profile before conducting a randomized controlled trial. This work also has other important strengths over previous studies, including the sample size, length of intervention, multiple toxicant exposure measures and control conditions.”
The study contributes to the ongoing question of what role e-cigarettes play in changing smoking behavior, and the findings support limited safety concerns for the use of the specific e-cigarette and liquid combinations over the short term, even in the context of concurrent cigarette smoking. However, Cobb added, very little is known about the effects of e-cigarettes over the course of years as opposed to the study’s 24-week period.
April 14, 2021
Taiwan Targets Nicotine Devices

Photo: Timo Volz from Pixabay
Taiwan could ban electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) in the second half of 2021, according to a report in The China Post.
The Taipei City Government Department of Health has reportedly drawn up draft amendments to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act, which have been sent to Parliament for approval.
The proposed amendments prohibit the manufacture, import, sale, supply, display, and advertisement of vaping devices and novel tobacco products.
Violators faces fines of between TWD$10,000 (US$351) and TWD$50,000.
E-cigarettes represent a new health hazard issue, according to Taiwan’s Health Bureau, which also points to cases of e-cigarettes containing amphetamines, marijuana and other drugs abroad.
The health authorities also expressed concern about the risk of ENDS exploding.
April 14, 2021
Swedish Match Holds Annual Meeting

Photo: Swedish Match
Participants in Swedish Match’s annual general meeting on April 13 resolved, in accordance with a proposal of the Board of Directors, to pay a dividend of SEK15 ($1.76) per share.
Charles A. Blixt, Andrew Cripps, Jacqueline Hoogerbrugge, Conny Karlsson, Alexander Lacik, Pauline Lindwall, Wenche Rolfsen and Joakim Westh were re-elected as members of Swedish Match’s board of directors. Karlsson was re-elected as chairman of the board and Cripps was re-elected as deputy chairman of the board.
The annual general meeting further approved the proposed remuneration to the members of the board of directors as set out in the notice. The annual general meeting also adopted the board of directors’ remuneration report for 2020.
Furthermore, the annual general meeting approved the board of directors’ proposal that it be authorized to resolve on acquisition of the company’s own shares, on one or several occasions prior to the next annual general meeting, provided the company’s holding does not at any time exceed 10 percent of all shares in the company.
In addition, the annual general meeting resolved to reduce the company’s share capital by SEK10,086,095.88 by means of withdrawal of 4,200,000 previously repurchased shares held in treasury, with a simultaneous bonus issue, without issuing any new shares, of a corresponding amount to restore the share capital.
Furthermore, the annual general meeting approved the board of directors’ proposal that it be authorized to, for the period until the end of the next annual general meeting, to issue new ordinary shares on one or more occasions, with or without deviation from shareholders’ preferential rights and against payment in cash, in kind or by set-off. The number of shares that may be issued may not exceed a maximum dilution effect of 10 percent of the share capital and votes at the time of the annual general meeting 2021.
The annual general meeting elected Deloitte as auditor until the end of the annual general meeting 2022.
The annual general meeting resolved, as proposed by the board of directors, to amend the articles of association, primarily as regards the stipulation on minimum and maximum number of shares and share capital due to the proposed share split but also by introducing the possibility of postal voting to facilitate and increase flexibility in the conduct of general meetings.
The annual general meeting resolved, as proposed by the board of directors, to split the share of the company, whereby each existing share shall be split into 10 shares of the same class of shares (10:1 share split). The board of directors was mandated to decide on the record date for the share split, which is estimated to be May 10, 2021.
April 14, 2021
Blackbriar and Beard Management Cooperate

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Blackbriar Regulatory Services (BRS) has entered into a regulatory services, manufacturing and distribution agreement with Beard Management. BRS will become Beard’s exclusive manufacturer and a distributor for the company’s Beard Vape Co. and The One brands’ nicotine products and will take over the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) process for these products. As a part of the agreement, BRS will co-brand a range of PRISM e-liquid products that are complimentary to Beard’s product line, which are currently awaiting regulatory PMTA approval and being manufactured under license by BRS.
“We are honored that Beard, a globally recognized and respected brand, has put their trust in BRS as a key strategic partner moving forward,” said Russ Rogers, CEO of BRS. “Our combination of ISO-certified cleanroom production and analytical lab facilities and industry-leading FDA regulatory application team puts us in a position to provide a very compelling value proposition to customers who are making the investment to be in this industry long-term.
“Beard’s unwavering commitment to high-quality products and regulatory practices makes them a great partner, and we could not be more excited to provide them with a wide array of business solutions to help them ensure that their amazing brand continues to grow and remains a long-term part of this rapidly changing and maturing industry.”
Partnering with BRS ensures the longevity of our brands.
Casey Bates, CFO, Beard
BRS will now become Beard’s agent of record with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and will oversee the process of providing to the FDA any additional regulatory and testing work required for Beard’s current PMTAs to scientifically prove its products are appropriate for the protection of public health. In addition, BRS will be manufacturing all of Beard’s 45 e-liquid products, including the Beard Vape Co. and The One brands. National and international distribution and all newly required domestic shipping registrations and compliance will also be handled by BRS.
“Partnering with BRS ensures the longevity of our brands,” said Casey Bates, chief financial officer at Beard. “With BRS’ proven competencies as a leader in nicotine e-liquid product manufacturing and regulatory services, it puts us in the perfect position moving forward. The merging of our core competencies will allow Beard to continue delivering great products and great customer service to adults looking for tobacco alternatives. We couldn’t have done this on our own, and we have a long list of people to thank, both at Beard and BRS, for making this possible.”
April 13, 2021