Category: News This Week

UAE Postpones Digital Tax Stamps

Photo: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The United Arab Emirates Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has postponed the starting date of its requirement for waterpipe tobacco and electrically heated cigarettes to carry digital tax stamps until Jan. 1, 2021, reports Gulf News.
The measure, which seeks to discourage commercial fraud, minimize health risks and combat tax evasion, had previously been scheduled to come into effect on June 1, 2020.
The FTA explained that the deadline was extended to address the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, which is preventing producers, importers, distributors and stockpilers from meeting the previously set deadline.
“This extension on the timeline provides them with seven additional months to prepare for the mandatory implementation of the ban,” said FTA Director General Khaled Ali Al Bustani.
“It also comes in response to the concerns expressed by stakeholders in the tobacco sector and their requests for such an extension that would allow them to sort out any issues resulting from the current difficult circumstances and the necessary precautionary measures that were enforced to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
Emirati authorities have implemented strict precautionary measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, including temporarily closing cafes and restaurants and banning them from serving waterpipes.
May 28, 2020
Coresta Extends Abstract Submission Deadline

Photo: manekj from Pixabay
Coresta extends abstract submission deadline
In response to the coronavirus disruption and numerous requests, Coresta has extended the deadline for submitting abstracts for its 2020 Congress to June 1.
Abstracts can be submitted online.
The Coresta Congress will be held at the Hilton Vienna Hotel in Vienna, Austria, Oct. 11–15, 2020, at the invitation of the Japan Tobacco Group.
May 27, 2020
‘Vaping Less Likely Long-Time Habit’

Photo: Hazem Mohamad
While the use of e-cigarettes is increasing, vaping is less likely to lead to a long-term habit than smoking, according to a group of 10 interrelated papers prepared for the ongoing Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study.
“The most surprising finding was that while we know cigarette smoking is persistent, and we see use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, increasing, especially among young people, what we are not seeing is that e-cigarette use is anywhere near as persistent as cigarette smoking,” says Andrew Hyland, chair of health behavior at Roswell Park and scientific lead on the PATH study.
“Cigarette smokers tend to stay cigarette smokers over time, but e-cigarette users are more likely to discontinue their use over time compared with cigarette smokers. We don’t know why that is.”
Hyland speculates that cigarettes deliver nicotine more effectively than e-cigarettes. Studies have shown that the types of e-cigarettes used during the data-collection period from 2013 to 2016 didn’t deliver nicotine as efficiently as cigarettes.
The study also found that e-cigarette use is associated with attempting to quit smoking. E-cigarette users were 20 percent more likely to try quitting cigarette smoking than adult smokers who did not use e-cigarettes.
May 27, 2020
EU Push to Tax Novel Products Like Tobacco

Photo: Horst Winkler from Pixabay
EU member states will ask the European Commission this week to place electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products and other novel tobacco products under the EU Tobacco Excise Directive, meaning these products would be taxed just like traditional tobacco products, according to a report by Euractiv.
Although novel tobacco products are regulated under the Tobacco Product Directive from a health perspective, there is currently no EU-wide excise framework.
Some member states tax e-liquids and heated tobacco products at different rates while others do not tax them at all.
In January 2018, the European Commission refrained from proposing harmonized taxation for novel tobacco products, citing a lack of data.
However, in February 2020, the executive published a report expressing concern about the lack of harmonization’s impact on the functioning of the EU internal market.
“The current lack of harmonization of the tax regulatory framework for these products is also restricting the possibility to monitor their market development and control their movements,” the report stated.
The tobacco industry argues that novel tobacco products and electronic cigarettes have significantly reduced health risks compared to traditional smoking and should therefore be taxed at lower levels.
May 27, 2020
WHO Launches Reports on New Products

Photo: WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published three reports to inform countries on the current state of scientific knowledge and policy options available for novel tobacco products such as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS) and heated tobacco products (HTPs).
ENDS and ENNDS, commonly known as e-cigarettes, are available in more than 100 countries while HTPs can be bought in about 40 countries.
The WHO insists that many of the new products are harmful to health.
“HTPs expose users to toxic emissions similar to those found in cigarette smoke, many of which can cause cancer, while ENDS on their own are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and lung disorders and adverse effects on the development of the fetus during pregnancy,” the WHO stated in a press release.
Because of the damaging and addictive nature of these products, the WHO says regulation is crucial to protect populations, particularly youth.
The publication of the briefs coincides with World No Tobacco Day 2020 on May 31. This year’s theme is “protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from nicotine and tobacco use.”
May 27, 2020
Longtime Holdout Germany Plans Ad Ban

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
The German government on May 22 announced plans to impose a complete tobacco product advertising ban that would go into effect from January 2022.
Although it is banned for the media, tobacco product advertising is still allowed at point-of-sale and in cinemas.
The proposed new law, which will be discussed in parliament next week, would also prohibit cigarette sampling and ban vapor product advertising beginning in 2024.
Consumer protection minister Julia Klockner said, “Limiting tobacco advertising on the street and in cinemas is long overdue.
Above all, we have to protect young people so that ideally they don’t even start smoking.”
May 26, 2020
‘Harm Reduction Is Human Right’

Photo: Horst Winkler from Pixabay
The European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA) is calling on policymakers to recognize the benefits of tobacco harm reduction in advance of World No Tobacco Day on May 31.
According to ETHRA, reduced-risk products such as e-cigarettes and snus are providing a gateway out of smoking for millions of Europeans, yet across the continent, consumer access to these products is being denied or is under threat.
Today, the organization launched a manifesto to promote appropriate regulation of innovative solutions for people who wish to continue using nicotine in far safer forms than smoking tobacco, as well as on behalf of the many smokers who may be able to quit through switching to these products in the future.
Among other things, the manifesto calls for access to harm reduction, including tobacco harm reduction, to be recognized as a human right; for consumers of safer nicotine products to be recognized as essential stakeholders in discussions of policy; and for the regulation for safer nicotine products to reflect the risks relative to the risks from smoking.
What’s more, regulators must recognize that having a wide choice of products and flavors is key to the success of safer nicotine products in enabling people to stop smoking, according to the manifesto. Regulation must consider the harm to adults when considering bans intended to protect youth, and tax policy must consider that high taxation of safer nicotine products increases rates of smoking.
Comprising 21 consumer associations in 16 European countries, the ETHRA was created to increase understanding about the benefits of “new” risk-reduced nicotine products and to promote recognition of long-term recreational use of nicotine as an incentive for smoking cessation.
May 26, 2020
Firms Offer Alternatives After Menthol Ban

Photo: Imperial Brands
Tobacco companies are taking advantage of the U.K.’s ban on menthol cigarettes to promote alternative products, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Philip Morris reportedly described the ban, which began on May 20, as a “huge opportunity” for its business as the 1.3 million menthol smokers in the U.K. consider their options.
According to the bureau, Philip Morris in the runup to the ban hired sales reps to promote its menthol heated tobacco products directly to newsagents, one of the only legal ways it can advertise in the U.K. where almost all tobacco advertising is banned. It also offered promotional menthol kits and trials for new customers, with half-price tobacco sticks in any of its four menthol flavors.
Philip Morris’ competitors have also tried to turn the menthol ban into a sales opportunity. Japan Tobacco has launched a menthol cigarillo, Imperial Brands has designed a mint-infused card that flavors cigarettes with menthol, and British American Tobacco is marketing its mint-flavored vapes.

“The menthol ban is going to be bad news for a lot of smokers, who are going to find smoking less appealing, so it is a big opportunity for smokers to quit,” said John Britton, professor of epidemiology and director at the U.K. Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham.
He said that tobacco companies will “want to minimize the numbers who quit and maximize the numbers who continue to buy products from them.”
May 26, 2020
UKVIA: U.K. Vape Shops Well-Positioned for Reopening

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
The entrepreneurial spirit displayed by vape shops during the U.K. government’s 10-week coronavirus lockdown will help them bounce back after the economy reopens, according to the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).
On Monday, the government announced it would allow vape shops to reopen June 15.
The UKVIA said it is “immensely proud” of vaping businesses for the responsible approach they have taken during the lockdown.
John Dunne
“The response from the industry to the challenging conditions has been both staggering and exemplary,” said John Dunne, director at UKVIA. “I know that our members that make up a large share of the vaping market have been working around the clock to provide online and home delivery services to the 3.2 million vapers across the country.
Dunne believes that the industry will be well placed to more than meet the social distancing guidance when shops reopen.
“All our retail members have still been ‘open for business’ since the lockdown begun and have introduced social distancing measures that go well beyond the government guidance,” he said. “This should give vapers confidence when going to their local stores.”
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May 26, 2020
Scandinavian Tobacco Reports Sales Increase

Photo: Scandinavian Tobacco Group
In the first quarter of 2020, Scandinavian Tobacco Group delivered net sales of DKK1.79 billion ($263.56 million), showing an organic net sales growth of 5 percent. The first quarter of 2020 includes the integration of Agio Cigars.
The company has updated its 2020 financial guidance after seeing the outcome of the first quarter and gaining a better understanding of how Covid-19 may affect the company in the coming quarters. It expects the EBDITA to grow more than 2 percent and free cash flow to be about DKK850 million.
Niels Frederiksen
The guidance is based on assumptions of a moderate decline in organic net sales growth for the full year with the highest decline in organic net sales growth in the second quarter and a gradual normalization over the third and fourth quarter as markets reopen and with no material disruptions to the supply chain. The company expects a contribution from cost savings in relation to the integration of Agio Cigars of about DKK70 million to DKK80 million in 2020 as well as further benefits from the Fueling the Growth program. Special costs are expected to be about DKK415 million to DKK435 million, including a noncash impairment charge of DKK109 million. The intention to initiate the previously announced share buyback program at a total value of up to DKK300 million remains unchanged.
“In the middle of a unprecedented global pandemic with a high degree of volatility and uncertainty in most markets, we are able to present a solid result for the first three months of 2020 with net sales growth and a strong cash flow as well as we have revealed the plans for creating significant value with the integration of Agio Cigars,” said Niels Frederiksen, CEO of Scandinavian Tobacco.
May 20, 2020