TobaccoReporter logo

Category: Global Regulation

  • Taiwan Close to Deciding on Heated Tobacco Products 

    Taiwan Close to Deciding on Heated Tobacco Products 

    Two years in the making, Taiwan’s Health Promotion Agency (HPA) Director-General Wu Chao-chun said on Friday, that decisions to approve heated tobacco products could begin coming out as soon as next month.

    Eleven tobacco manufacturers submitted applications to the HPA and six completed the documentation assessment phase of the approval evaluation process. Those companies moved into the product testing phase of the evaluation, which takes six months.

    In March 2023, the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act was amended to allow a path to legalization on a case-by-case basis. Manufacturers that gain approval would be authorized to commercialize their products with the appropriate labeling and health warnings. Those that do not are forced to resubmit and begin the process again or move to litigation.

    Wu said announcements of the results would be staggered as the documentation came in at different times and often had to be redone.

  • Israel Mandates Graphic Images on Tobacco and Vape Products

    Israel Mandates Graphic Images on Tobacco and Vape Products

    Israel’s Health Ministry announced today (March 6) that it mandated graphic warning images be printed on cigarette packs in an effort to deter smokers. Materials will include images that depict decayed organs, people on ventilators, and children surrounded by cigarette smoke. The graphic photos will be in addition to the existing written warnings.

    “This is another significant step in reducing the attractiveness of tobacco products and preventing youth addiction to tobacco and nicotine,” said Health Minister Uriel Busso.

    The regulations will apply to various tobacco products, including cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, hookahs, and chewing (snuff) tobacco. Israel will be one of the first countries globally to require a combined health warning on e-cigarettes and their components.

  • Oregon Bill Looks to Ban Flavored Products

    Oregon Bill Looks to Ban Flavored Products

    A bill to ban flavored nicotine products in Oregon got a first hearing Tuesday, with wording broad enough, according to Sen. Lisa Reynolds, to include any flavored product that contains tobacco or nicotine and “things we haven’t thought of yet.” If passed, Senate Bill 702 would ban the sale or distribution of any “flavored inhalant delivery system products or flavored tobacco products” in the state.

    “The bill would also ban promotional giveaways and other free distribution of all tobacco products, whether flavored or not, and it would require all cigarettes, vapes, and smokeless tobacco products to be sold only at licensed retailers,” Anthony Macuk wrote for KGW8.

    Dozens of people testified about the bill at the hearing before the Senate Committee on Early Childhood and Behavioral Health. Students, parent advocates, and lawmakers mainly focused on the health risks of tobacco and the appeal of flavored vapes to teens and young people. However, several tobacco shop owners testified that it’s already illegal for people under 21 to purchase vaping and tobacco products, and said an across-the-board ban on flavored products would heavily damage their businesses and create an expanded and empowered black market for flavored products. Others, including Sen. David Brock Smith, argued that vapes and smokeless tobacco products are less harmful to users’ health than traditional cigarettes and that banning the alternatives would push some users back towards the more damaging products.

  • Legislation Introduced to Close Tobacco “Loopholes”

    Legislation Introduced to Close Tobacco “Loopholes”

    U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoothi, and several others today (March 4) introduced the End Tobacco Loopholes Act, legislation that would “lower tobacco use and reduce healthcare spending” by increasing the taxes on tobacco products. The legislation would establish a federal tax on e-cigarettes, update the federal cigarette tax rate, and harmonize the tax rate across tobacco products.

    “Big Tobacco’s deadly profit scheme relies on addicting children,” Durbin said. “Our most effective strategy to reduce smoking and prevent a new generation from becoming addicted is to price these dangerous tobacco products out of the reach of children. But federal law has not been updated in 16 years, creating loopholes that Big Tobacco has used to hook kids. The End Tobacco Loopholes Act would help reduce tobacco and e-cigarette use, save billions in healthcare costs, and improve the health of children for generations to come.”

    According to Durbin’s website, the legislation would “close tax code loopholes for tobacco products by increasing the federal tax rate on cigarettes, pegging it to inflation to ensure it remains an effective public health tool, and setting the federal tax rate for all other tobacco products at this same level.” It would also “follow the lead of 30 states and Washington, D.C., that have set their own state taxes, by setting a federal tax on these vaping products. The legislation also closes numerous tax and regulatory loopholes that the tobacco industry has exploited for large cigars, smokeless tobacco, and pipe tobacco by shifting production and sale schemes to avoid taxes and oversight, resulting in nearly $4 billion in lost federal revenue between 2009 and 2018.”

    Durbin added that “large cigars, smokeless tobacco, and pipe tobacco remain dramatically undertaxed compared to cigarettes, at a time when their use—especially among youth—is trending at a comparable rate to cigarettes.”

  • Dutch Urge EU to Get Tough on Vapes

    Dutch Urge EU to Get Tough on Vapes

    Dutch junior health minister Vincent Karremans told the European Commission that the decision to delay legislation on new nicotine products is “harmful” in a letter sent to EU health chief Olivér Várhelyi after the commission decided to exclude tobacco-related legislation from its 2025 work program. Karremans urged him to take “decisive” action to protect young people’s health.

    The Dutch also want the EU to establish a legal framework for cross-border distance sales of new tobacco products, arguing that these allow consumers to bypass national restrictions. According to European news website Euractiv, the Dutch health ministry is urging Brussels to impose “comprehensive restrictions on flavors, maximum nicotine levels, and plain packaging” on e-cigarettes and other nicotine products

    In 2023, Dutch MPs voted in favor of a motion by the Democrats 66 party to introduce a tax on e-cigarettes and vapes, although officials say this is unlikely to happen before 2029. Flavored vaping liquids have already been banned in the Netherlands, yet the country is still struggling with a surge in vaping among teenagers, who, health ministers say, are attracted to the flavors.

  • N.C. Task Force Wants to Raise Tobacco Age to 21

    N.C. Task Force Wants to Raise Tobacco Age to 21

    North Carolina’s Child Fatality Task Force submitted a report to the governor and the legislature for 2025 suggesting the state raise the legal age for tobacco purchases from 18 to 21 to align with federal laws, and make licenses required for tobacco retailers. The report notes that North Carolina is one of seven states to not have raised the age for purchases to 21 and is one of nine states to not require a license or permit for tobacco retailers. 

    The task force also recommended prohibiting the sale of intoxicating cannabis or hemp products to people younger than 21, requiring child-resistant packaging and package warnings, and requiring retailers to obtain permits.

    “Last year, the legislature was close to passing a law that would have set a minimum age of 21 for buying edibles containing hemp CBD,” Lynn Bonner wrote on NC Newsline. “The bill was derailed when the Senate added legalization of medical marijuana to it.  While the Senate passed the measure, it stalled in the House.”

  • Taiwan Bill to Strengthen E-Cig Regs

    Taiwan Bill to Strengthen E-Cig Regs

    Today, Taiwan’s  Health Promotion Administration (HPA) proposed an amendment to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (THP) to strengthen regulations against e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. The proposal allows the direct confiscation and destruction of these products and enhances online supervision, Tobacco Control Division head Lo Su-ying said.

    The THP was amended in 2023 to prohibit the manufacture, import, sale, display, advertisement, and use of e-cigarettes and unapproved heated tobacco products. Since then, more than 600,000 fines totaling $11.2 million have been issued, however, currently, the contraband items cannot be confiscated but are instead returned to the owner. The proposed amendment would fill in this loophole, facilitating the accelerated confiscation and destruction of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, Lo said.

    The new proposal would also stipulate that internet service providers must remove illegal tobacco advertisements and restrict access to related content. 

  • Judge: Calif. Tribe Didn’t Comply with Tobacco Laws

    Judge: Calif. Tribe Didn’t Comply with Tobacco Laws

    A U.S. District Judge said the U.S. Department of Justice did nothing arbitrary or capricious when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) blocked the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians from shipping cigarettes. Judge Sunshine S. Sykes said Twenty-Nine Palms was fine to sell untaxed cigarettes to other Native nation tribes, but when those cigarettes were then resold to “non-Native nation customers” without collecting California taxes it was a violation of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act.

    The tribe did not dispute that the cigarettes were resold without being taxed but instead argued that when the ATF initially put it on the non-compliance list it incorrectly listed the sale to Native-nation customers as the reason before changing it to non-Native nation customers.

    “Even if the court were to hold that ATF’s argument that the tribe’s Native nation customers violate the [California Licensing Act] were improper post-hoc legal justifications, ATF’s decision remains on solid ground,” the judge said.

    In its opposition to summary judgment, the tribe said ATF’s logic undercuts tribal sovereignty, forcing tribal nations to be subject to state laws.

    “Subjecting Indian tribes to a state-licensing scheme as a condition of doing business with their own tribal members is simply unconscionable and would violate the most basic inherent sovereign right of tribes to make their own laws and be ruled by them,” the tribe said. “ATF’s failure to consider whether the application of California law as adopted in the decision allows for tribes to conduct on reservation business with their members free of state taxation and regulation was arbitrary and capricious.”

  • FCTC Slammed for Self-Congratulatory Approach

    FCTC Slammed for Self-Congratulatory Approach

    Last week, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) – one of the biggest United Nations treaties in history – celebrated its 20th anniversary with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calling tobacco a plague on humanity.

    “Over the past two decades … global tobacco use prevalence has dropped by one-third,” he said. “The WHO FCTC has helped to save millions of lives through strengthened tobacco control measures around the world.”

    Not everyone was impressed, however, as today the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) condemned the FCTC for “celebrating institutional achievements whilst millions across the Asia Pacific region continue to die from preventable smoking-related diseases.”  

    “The FCTC’s self-congratulatory approach is deeply offensive to communities devastated by preventable tobacco deaths,” said Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA. “While they celebrate incremental victories, over one billion people globally continue smoking, with the majority in low and middle-income countries across our region. Their refusal to acknowledge harm reduction alternatives is costing countless lives.” 

    CAPHRA said that despite mounting evidence supporting tobacco harm reduction, the FCTC continues to marginalize consumer advocates while maintaining policies that deny smokers access to potentially life-saving alternatives. The FCTC systematically excludes these voices from policy deliberations, dismissing their lived experiences and denying others who smoke in Asia the opportunity to access reduced harm alternatives.  

     “The FCTC’s unwillingness to evolve in the face of overwhelming evidence amounts to a human rights issue,” Loucas said. “By reducing tobacco harm reduction to an industry construct, the FCTC effectively sentences millions to preventable suffering.” 

    CAPHRA is calling on delegates of the upcoming COP11 meeting to “adopt risk-proportionate regulations that distinguish safer alternatives from deadly combustible products, subject FCTC policies to UN human rights oversight, and acknowledge the successes of countries who have embraced tobacco harm reduction in their public health policies that confirms the scientific consensus on safer nicotine products as critical harm reduction tools.” 

  • France Extends Ban to Nicotine Pouches

    France Extends Ban to Nicotine Pouches

    Two weeks after banning disposable e-cigarettes, France notified the European Commission it would ban the sale of nicotine pouches as well, joining countries that include Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg.

    “The French decree follows in the footsteps of the decision on 13 February to ban disposable e-cigarettes,” a tobacco industry source told Euractiv. “French regulators have been monitoring developments in the new tobacco products sector. Health authorities became alarmed, and the government decided to activate the legislative levers available to it.”

    With an expected annual growth rate of 6.2%, the European nicotine pouch market could reach €1.06 billion by 2030. Europe’s 2014 Tobacco Products Directive covered all traditional tobacco-containing products and included provisions for new tobacco products, however, nicotine pouches contain no tobacco, and thus remain unregulated at the EU level.

    Tobacco and nicotine products are not on the EU’s agenda for 2025, however, the Polish Presidency Council (which sits atop the Commission along with Denmark and Cyprus until June) is looking to move forward with discussions for taxing alternative tobacco products and possibly revising the Tobacco Products Directive.