TobaccoReporter logo

Category: Global Regulation

  • Opinion: Washington Flavor Laws ‘Kicking the Can Down the Road’

    Opinion: Washington Flavor Laws ‘Kicking the Can Down the Road’

    This week, after previous renditions seemed dead in the water, Washington legislators slipped twin bills into the House and Senate that would impose a statewide flavor ban on tobacco products and add a carbon tax on cigarettes. In an opinion piece for the Tax Foundation, Adam Hoffer and Jacob Macumber-Rosin, both experts in tax policy, compared these schemes to others around the country.

    “A carbon tax on cigarettes is novel, while the idea for a flavor ban is not,” they wrote. “Massachusetts and California have already banned flavored tobacco products in their states, and the experiences have been so negative that the Biden administration backed off its own plan for a nationwide flavor ban.

    “Both Massachusetts and California experienced massive tax revenue declines, incredible growth in illicit market activity, and little to no change in smoking rates. Following its flavor ban in 2020, Massachusetts saw cigarette excise tax revenue decline by more than $100 million and revenue has persisted at the lower level. Unfortunately, fewer legal sales don’t necessarily translate to less consumption. Our previous work identified that about 90% of the reduction in sales in Massachusetts was offset by increases in legal sales in neighboring states. Illicit product seizures and smuggling estimates have skyrocketed.”

    The writers said California fared no better, losing more than $230 million in state cigarette sales and excise taxes since it banned flavors in December 2022. Unlike Massachusetts, however, smokers didn’t turn to neighboring states, they began utilizing illicit and international markets to replace their legal purchases.

    “One study collected details on 15,000 discarded cigarette packs from public trash containers across 10 major California cities in May and June of 2023,” they wrote. “These data showed that 21.1% of the discarded packs were menthol-style cigarettes, a mere 3% drop in menthol market share estimates from before the flavor ban.

    “The same data found foreign and illicit market share spiked. Non-US packs comprised 27.6% of the sample, compared to an estimated foreign market share of only 17% previously.”

    The state’s fiscal analysis predicts a flavor ban would decrease revenues by more than $100 million per year, and the proposed carbon tax would only recoup 1% of that.

    “The justification for applying a carbon tax on top of existing cigarette taxes is weak,” they wrote. “Secondhand smoke certainly harms others nearby who are forced to inhale it, and cigarette smoking releases carbon dioxide, but classifying cigarettes as a broad state-wide pollutant is a stretch.

    “These haphazard policies appear to be part of a ‘try-anything’ effort to close the state’s projected $15 billion budget shortfall. Washington State taxpayers deserve sound fiscal policy reforms that will provide stable, long-run revenue for the government. Narrow-based and patchwork fixes only kick the can down the road to the next set of elected officials.”

  • Essex Vape Shop Closed for 3 Months for Selling Illicit Vapes

    Essex Vape Shop Closed for 3 Months for Selling Illicit Vapes

    The Mellow Yellow Vape Shack in south Essex, England, was ordered to close for three months after being caught selling counterfeit tobacco and illegal vapes by Thurrock Council’s trading standards team in February. The team, accompanied by sniffer dog Lily, found large quantities of counterfeit cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco hidden in the shop, along with illegal vapes that came in packaging targeting children or that were more than 10 times the legal tank size.

    This is the second time the shop has been caught selling illegal products in less than six months. The Basildon Magistrates Court ordered the shop to remain closed for three months and for Amir Ahmadi to pay £4,665.67 in costs.

    “Let this be a message to any business that thinks it can cheat and endanger its customers by selling counterfeit and illegal goods,” said Victoria Holloway, councilor responsible for place and the environment. “Our trading standards team will find you and the full force of the law will be used to hold you to account.”

  • Washington Lawmakers Take Another Shot at Banning Flavors

    Washington Lawmakers Take Another Shot at Banning Flavors

    Efforts to ban flavored tobacco products in the state of Washington were revived Monday (April 7), as a bill to do so got a House committee hearing after the effort was previously assumed dead. Lawmakers rolled out twin bills aimed at nearly every product that contains tobacco or nicotine.

    House Bill 2068 and its Senate counterpart, SB 5803, call for a statewide ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco and nicotine products (e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco, hookah, cigars, menthols, nicotine pouches, and menthol cigarettes). They also call for an extra $2 in tax on every pack of cigarettes. If passed, Washington would leap into the top tier of states with the highest cigarette taxes, going from $3.025 per pack to $5.025. The tax would be tied to inflation and adjusted every three years to keep pace with rising costs. Other tobacco and vapor products, including alternative nicotine options like nicotine pouches, would also see steep tax hikes, up to 95% of the product’s taxable sales price.

    “These products don’t contribute to the social well-being of our communities,” said Rep. Kristine Reeves, the bill’s main sponsor. “They definitely don’t contribute to the health and well-being of our children. And I would love for you to join me in helping find a path forward to make sure that the next generation is not getting hooked on tobacco.”

    Reeves pushed similar restrictions in another bill this session which failed to move forward.

  • Tobacco Bootleggers, Police Becoming More Creative

    Tobacco Bootleggers, Police Becoming More Creative

    Tobacco bootleggers are becoming more inventive in their methods of storing and transporting goods, and thus, police and enforcement officials are adapting in the ways they catch them. The seizure of illegal tobacco products in Hull, England, doubled last year, according to the city council, with more than 2.4 million counterfeit cigarettes confiscated, along with 45,731 illegal vapes, and 25,841 tobacco pouches.

    Detection dogs have uncovered illicit tobacco in numerous sophisticated hiding places, including a compartment inside a concrete drain, a delivery chute from an upstairs flat, a false mirror, and a floor safe with a hidden hydraulic lift, the council said.

    Rachel Stephenson, head of public protection at the council, said seizures ranged from small traders to “major distributors in the city.” One raid found thousands of counterfeit products hidden inside an industrial bin.

    “Our team and our partners demonstrate over and over again that they stay a step ahead of those trading illegal tobacco and vapes,” Stephenson said.

  • Bidi Opens Latest Appeal Against FDA

    Bidi Opens Latest Appeal Against FDA

    Yesterday (April 2), Bidi Vapor LLC urged the Eleventh Circuit to reverse a U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision denying its application to market a disposable e-cigarette, saying the agency acted unlawfully. In oral arguments in Miami, attorney Eric Gotting told an appellate panel that the FDA’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious and unlawful,” and that the agency admitted adult smokers would likely switch to Bidi’s safer product—a disposable e-cigarette prefilled with tobacco-flavored e-liquid—but still denied the application.

    In January 2024, the FDA issued a marketing denial order (MDO) for the tobacco-flavored Bidi Stick-Classic disposable vape. The decision came while the agency was continuing a court-ordered second review of marketing applications for flavored Bidi Vapor products. The FDA said Bidi’s premarket tobacco application “did not demonstrate an overall net benefit to people who use tobacco products and lacked sufficient evidence to address health risks.”

    Bidi believes the FDA violated the Administrative Procedure Act and hopes to build on its record of successfully contesting adverse FDA decisions. In August 2022, the 11th Circuit set aside the original MDOs issued for its 10 non-tobacco-flavored products. That ruling put the 10 PMTAs back into scientific review and allowed those flavors to remain available for sale pursuant to the FDA’s compliance policy for deemed tobacco products.

  • Maldives Proposing Generational Ban on Tobacco

    Maldives Proposing Generational Ban on Tobacco

    During a podcast hosted by his office, Maldives President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu said that he is considering three proposals for a “generation ban” on tobacco, aiming to prevent younger generations from smoking. The proposals differed only in date, when people would be forever banned from smoking if born after January 1 in either 2000, 2004, or 2007.

    Explaining the rationale behind these options, President Muizzu stated that focusing on the 18 to 25 age group and below would make it easier to prevent addiction before it becomes deep-seated. He also highlighted the importance of consulting medical professionals and other stakeholders in formulating the policy and said that Health Minister Abdulla Nazim Ibrahim has been tasked with drafting a Cabinet paper on the proposed ban.

  • Belgium Tobacco Display Ban Goes into Effect

    Belgium Tobacco Display Ban Goes into Effect

    Belgium’s new laws to limit the visibility of cigarettes and other nicotine products, with the hope of curbing impulse purchases, went into effect yesterday (April 1). Cigarettes and other tobacco products can no longer be displayed in shops and stores larger than 400 square meters are banned from selling such products altogether. This is the second phase of a program that included the ban of disposable e-cigarettes beginning Jan. 1.

    “Our ambition is to have a smoke-free generation by 2040,” said Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke. “From now on, it is illegal to have cigarettes or vapes on display, that is visible, in a store. It is not a prohibition on buying this stuff. You can buy it, but you have to ask the vendor.”

    No specific guidance or material on how to handle tobacco products was provided to retailers. Each shop has had to find its own solution to the display ban, from handmade plastic curtains to sophisticated shelves that automatically light up when opened.

    “It is annoying because the government hasn’t given us any supply,” said news and tobacco shop owner Jenny Van Vaerenbergh. “They should have provided the necessary equipment.”

  • Sources: Big Changes for Hong Kong Tobacco Laws in 2026  

    Sources: Big Changes for Hong Kong Tobacco Laws in 2026  

    Last year, Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region government proposed 10 tobacco control measures that prompted backlash from businesses and smokers alike. Now, sources say the Health Bureau plans to submit an amendment bill to the Legislative Council by the end of this month based on those measures, which would include items such as increased penalties for illegal tobacco sales, a ban on flavored cigarettes, and expanded smoke-free areas.

    The sources said the regulations would be implemented in 2026, typically in two phases.

    E-cigarettes would be banned in public spaces starting as early as the second quarter of next year, with potential extensions to private areas and other devices depending on favorable outcomes. The ban on flavored cigarettes would begin with non-menthol flavors first, and then menthol later, with no specific timeline set.

    The new proposal would also focus on combating illegal tobacco, with a trial starting mid-year to add identification labels on duty-paid cigarettes. Authorities would also increase penalties for smuggling; the maximum fine for buying, selling, or possessing illegal cigarettes will rise from HK$1 million ($130,000) and two years in prison to HK$2 million ($260,000) and seven years in prison. Travelers bringing more than 19 packs of duty-free cigarettes to Hong Kong would see fines increased from HK$5,000 ($650) to over HK$8,000 ($1,040).

  • Supreme Court Favors FDA in Flavor Battle

    Supreme Court Favors FDA in Flavor Battle

    Today (April 2), the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a lower court’s decision that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration incorrectly blocked flavored nicotine e-liquids, rejecting e-cigarette makers that were challenging regulatory hurdles on tobacco products.

    E-liquid companies Triton Distribution and Vapetasia LLC claimed the FDA unlawfully denied the marketing authorization for flavored vape products and disputed that the products appealed to children, arguing that the government was harming nicotine-addicted adults by keeping a cigarette alternative off the market.

    The vape companies argued the FDA failed to review the company’s own scientific evidence, which demonstrates its flavored products were crucial to getting smokers to switch from combustible cigarettes to e-cigarettes. The Fifth Circuit Court agreed with the e-cigarette maker, ruling that “the agency’s rejection was arbitrary and capricious because the FDA relied on conflicting evidence requirements.” The court also faulted the FDA for dismissing “out-of-hand companies’ strategies to keep their products away from minors.” The agency said such efforts haven’t proven to be effective.

    Public health groups had already sued the FDA for not moving fast enough to review the products after the agency, in 2016, finalized rules for regulating them under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Under the Act, vape companies were forced to submit applications to the FDA in order to bring new vape flavors to market, and the FDA was to assess the public health effects of those products. A rift, however, emerged over the agency’s criteria for approving or denying those applications, which culminated in the Fifth Circuit.

    The fight was brought to the Supreme Court in November with the FDA contending it correctly applied the Tobacco Control Act, saying it considered both the “likelihood that existing users of tobacco products will stop using such products” and the “likelihood that those who do not use tobacco products will start using such products.”

    Oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court centered on whether the FDA standards are a policy position or a substantive rule imposed without notice and comment. The Biden administration argued the standards fell into the policy bucket, pushing the court to give the agency deference to interpret its role under the Tobacco Control Act. 

    Under the Biden administration, the FDA rejected more than a million flavored products, saying companies failed to show that flavored vapes will do more to benefit public health by helping smokers quit tobacco products than the harm they cause by appealing to young people.

    Vaping companies hope they’ll find a friendlier regulatory environment under the Trump administration, as the President previously promised to “save” flavored vaping.

  • Australia’s New Packaging Warnings Take Effect

    Australia’s New Packaging Warnings Take Effect

    Beginning today (April 1), Australia’s new cigarette packaging laws have gone into effect, including that each individual cigarette has a health warning printed on it. Warning phrases include “causes 16 cancers,” “damages your lungs,” and “poisons in every puff.” Canada is the only other country in the world to have such requirements.

    The new laws that went into effect also introduced 10 new graphic health warnings that will be printed on tobacco packaging as well as 10 new inserts that will be placed inside packaging, providing information on the benefits of quitting smoking.

    Sarah Durkin from the Cancer Council said that the graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging have proven effective in educating Australians about the harms of smoking but that the effectiveness of the warnings has decreased over time. 

    “We also have new scientific information that extends our knowledge of the health effects of tobacco use,” she said. “The new graphic health warnings feature some of these harms of smoking that people may not be aware of, such as diabetes, erectile dysfunction, cervical cancer, DNA damage, and the impact of second-hand smoke on children’s lung capacity.”