Beginning January 1, 2024, Belgium will introduce a new tax on e-liquids used in electronic cigarettes. The tax will be set at 15 cents per milliliter.
The move has received criticism from both users and retailers who fear that it will lead to increased costs and a potential shift back to traditional tobacco cigarettes.
The spokesperson for the federal Finance Minister defended the tax, stating that it aligns with Germany’s tax rate, which is also set to increase in the coming years, according to media reports.
They further clarified that the goal is not to encourage people to return to smoking combustible cigarettes but to recognize that e-cigarettes are also tobacco products and should be used as a temporary measure to quit smoking.
A soldier is on duty in Changi Airport (SIN) – Credit: Phuong
As part of a multi-agency effort to clamp down on vaping, Singapore authorities will step up checks at air, land and sea checkpoints in the coming months, starting with Changi Airport.
“Incoming passengers may be screened for e-vaporizers and their components at the arrival halls, and those found with e-vaporizers or their components will be fined,” said the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) in a media release.
Vaping is illegal in Singapore and offenders can be fined up to S$2,000 ($1,490). Those who import, distribute or sell such products face stiffer penalties, including a possible jail term.
Passengers carrying vaping devices must pass through the Red Channel (for people with goods to declare) to dispose of the prohibited items. “Travellers who declare and surrender these items at the Red Channel will avoid penalties,” said MOH and HSA, according to reports.
Additional Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) locations have been set up to flush out vaping violators, and security checks will also be conducted to detect and deter smuggling attempts.
Apart from the border checkpoints, checks will be stepped up at places such as the central business district, shopping centres, parks, smoking areas, as well as public entertainment outlets such as bars and clubs.
After testing 32 disposable e-cigarettes, the cantonal laboratory in Basel City, Switzerland, said it found problems with all of them and issued a sales ban on seven for containing toxic substances, reported SRF.
The e-cigarettes were obtained from 12 sales outlets in the city. The problems detected include nicotine above the maximum legal limit, lead in metal joints, toxins linked to infertility and the presence of undisclosed additives.
Smoking rates are high in Switzerland. An estimated 27 percent of the population 15 and over smokes, and 42 percent of men aged between 25 and 34 are smokers.
Thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia have been pardoned, the White House said Friday.
President Joe Biden announced that the clemencies are meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system.
The categorical pardon builds on a similar round issued just before the 2022 midterm elections that pardoned thousands convicted of simple possession on federal lands.
Friday’s action broadens the criminal offenses covered by the pardon.
Biden is also granting clemency to 11 people serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, according to the AP.
Biden, in a statement, said his actions would help make the “promise of equal justice a reality.”
No one was freed from prison under last year’s action, but the pardons were meant to help thousands overcome obstacles to renting a home or finding a job. Similarly, no federal prisoners are eligible for release as a result of Friday’s pardon.
But the order expands the grounds on which pardons are issued. In the last round, people were pardoned for simple possession under only one criminal statute.
Friday’s pardons also apply to several other criminal statutes, including attempted simple possession.
The Irish Government has announced that the ban on selling e-cigarettes or vapes to minors takes effect from tomorrow.
Stephen Donnelly, the Minister for Health, obtained Cabinet approval for this measure earlier this year, which was signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins in August.
The Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill comes into effect from Friday, December 21.
From then on, it will be an offense to sell a nicotine inhaling product to someone under the age of 18. The offense will carry a penalty of a fine of up to €4,000 ($4408) and a prison sentence of up to six months.
The new bill includes measures to address smoking and vaping among adults.
Beginning today, the sale of tobacco products and nicotine inhaling products at events for children will also be prohibited, as will the self-service sale of such products.
The bill prohibits the sale of certain items to minors and restricts their advertisement in schools and on public transport. It also provides for increased enforcement, according to media reports.
The bill also allows for additional enforcement powers to the Environmental Health Service for measures in the bill and for all previous Tobacco Control Acts.
Ireland’s Finance Minister Michael McGrath postponed a vaping tax over concerns it would discourage smokers from quitting with e-cigarettes.
Officials from the Department of Finance stated the need to strike a balance between discouraging young people from vaping and supporting existing smokers who switch to e-cigarettes to quit. Health officials recommended e-cigarettes be taxed differently based on their comparative harm versus traditional cigarettes,” according to media reports.
McGrath has said introducing a new tax on vapes will be “challenging” to implement. The country’s government intends to apply the levy on e-cigarettes as part of a public health response to vaping. “A domestic tax will require significant IT, administrative, control, and compliance costs,” McGrath said.
“We welcome the decision of the Minister of Finance and ask the Irish Government to keep a tax differential between electronic and traditional cigarettes in the future large enough to incentivize smokers to switch,” said Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers’ Alliance. “The risk profile of vaping products is much lower than that of combustion cigarettes and they should be taxed as such. If the tax had been approved, it would have pushed tens of thousands of vapers back to smoking.”
Research has shown that increasing vaping taxes can lead to higher smoking, particularly among young adults. The Department of Finance submission also expressed concerns over vapers switching to the black market if the tax was enacted.
Implementation of the tax was postponed with no new date in sight, while the government also waits for an EU framework to ease its implementation. The update of the EU Tobacco Tax Directive is expected to include an EU-wide excise tax on vaping products.
“Taxing vaping products similarly to combustion cigarettes would have a negative impact on public health as it would push vapers back to smoking or the black market and discourage smokers from switching,” Landl said. “We recommend other countries and the EU to follow Ireland’s example and refrain from implementing vaping taxes.”
Juul Labs announced on Tuesday that it is seeking FDA approval for its new menthol-flavored pods. The JUUL2 pods require age verification and are designed to be used with Juul’s e-cigarette device, which is currently under regulatory review.
The new menthol-flavored pods have a nicotine concentration of 18 mg/mL and are Juul’s latest premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submission to the FDA, according to media reports.
This follows a submission Juul Labs made in July for a vaporizer with a unique Pod ID chip to prevent the use of counterfeit cartridges and restrict underage access. The July application included a proposal for tobacco-flavored pods.
The vaporizer is already on sale in the UK after its launch in 2021 as the JUUL2 System.
The menthol pod contains a secure microchip that communicates a requirement for age verification to the device before use. The device can be locked by users at any time to prevent unauthorized usage.
To mitigate the risk of social sourcing, Juul said it would limit not only the number of devices that can be purchased but also the number of new devices each unique age-verified user can activate and use with menthol-flavored pods.
So far, the FDA has authorized only 23 e-cigarette products for sale in the United States, all of them tobacco-flavored. The agency has denied menthol e-cigarette applications from several high-profile manufacturers, including British American Tobacco, which is appealing those decisions.
Juul Labs said in a statement it has submitted evidence showing its new menthol pods can help more cigarette smokers transition from smoking than tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.
Starting next month, the use of vapes and other e-cigarette products will be prohibited in public places in Illinois.
In 2007, the Smoke-Free Illinois Act was implemented to ban smoking of cigars and cigarettes indoors and within 15 feet of entrances. The law is now being strengthened and will take effect on Jan. 1st.
“E-cigarettes, in all of their many forms, continue to be one of the most addictive products readily available for purchase in gas stations, vape shops and online,” State Senator Julie Morrison, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said in a release. “We have made solid progress toward de-normalizing the perception of tobacco, and I am proud that on Jan. 1, e-cigarette usage will be banned indoors.”
On the first offense, individuals caught smoking e-cigarettes in public places in the state will be fined $100.
The governor signed the bill into law in July 2019, which also raised the legal age for purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21 in Illinois.
Localities in Ohio will not be allowed to enact flavor bans for nicotine products.
The Ohio House voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of legislation prohibiting cities from imposing flavored tobacco bans.
The move marked the latest effort by lawmakers to block local regulation of flavored tobacco products, including menthol.
Columbus is preparing to ban the sale of flavored tobacco starting next month, and Cincinnati, Dayton and Cleveland are considering similar proposals, according to Cincinnati.com.
The vote also highlighted divisions between DeWine and legislative leaders on the issue that have persisted for months. Veto overrides are rare because they require more votes in the House and Senate.
Anti-tobacco groups say these bans are necessary to reduce teen vaping. Officials in the House and Senate contend the state should have uniform guidelines and say the legislation will protect small businesses.
Last week, U.S. authorities publicly announced the first seizure of some Elf Bar products and other disposable vape brands as part of an operation confiscating 1.4 million illegal, flavored vapes from China.
Officials pegged the value of the items at $18 million.
The Associated Press, however, is also reporting the vapor maker of Elf Bar and other disposable brands, Shenzhen iMiracle and others, has imported products worth hundreds of millions of dollars while repeatedly dodging customs and avoiding taxes and import fees, according to public records and court documents.
Records show the makers of disposable vapes routinely mislabel their shipments as “battery chargers,” “flashlights” and other items, hampering efforts to block products that critics say are driving teen vaping in the U.S.
“The steps toward regulating disposables have been very weak and that has enabled this problem to get bigger and bigger,” said Eric Lindblom, a former Food and Drug Administration official.
Elf Bar is the lead product of Shenzhen iMiracle, a privately held company based in Shenzhen, the sprawling Chinese manufacturing hub that produces more than 95% of the world’s e-cigarettes.
Elf bar lost mary
Elf Bar, Lost Mary and several other iMiracle brands are expected to generate $3.5 billion to $4 billion globally this year, according to industry analyst ECigIntelligence.
In the U.S., iMiracle recently abandoned the Elf Bar name due to a trademark dispute and efforts by regulators to seize its imports. Instead, its products are sold as EB Create.
At a 2022 court hearing in the case, U.S. distributors described skyrocketing sales.
Jon Glauser, of Demand Vape in Buffalo, N.Y., told a federal judge his company had sold more than $132 million worth of Elf Bar products, accounting for a third of its yearly profits.
“We were selling it faster than we could get it in,” Glauser said, according to the court transcript.
Glauser attributed Elf Bar’s quick rise to its profit margin. Sellers make about a 30% profit, double that of other disposable e-cigarettes, he said.
IMiracle’s parent company, Heaven Gifts, previously described how it could help customers evade import fees and taxes. Heaven Gifts’ website advertised “discreet” shipping methods to buyers, including not mentioning e-cigarettes or its company name “anywhere on the package.” Instead, the company said contents would be labeled as “atomizer, coil, tube, etc.”
“We also mark a lower value to avoid tax,” the website stated, adding that customers could suggest their own value for the shipment.
In June, Heaven Gifts announced it would “go offline,” shortly after the FDA directed customs officials to begin seizing shipments from the company.
Despite the update, the company’s spokesman indicated Heaven Gifts remains in business and staffers continue using email accounts bearing its name. The spokesman did not answer numerous follow-up questions about the company’s business.
Neither Heaven Gifts nor iMiracle appear in customs data reviewed by the AP and compiled by ImportGenius, a global trade analytics company.
The seizure announced last week suggests part of the answer: The shipments arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, and air carriers are not required to disclose the same details about their cargo as ocean vessels. The e-cigarettes were mislabeled as toys, shoes and other items.
