Vape Market Weekly News (March 15th to 21th, 2025 )

China

• In January and February 2025, China's e-cigarette exports were about $1.5 billion, down 9.4% from the same period in 2024. Among them, the export value in January was 1.002 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 1.47%; The export value in February was 498 million US dollars, down 22.07% year-on-year. The United States is the largest export destination with $595 million, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany.
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• On Mar. 18, 2025, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Tobacco Control and Health Committee pointed out that e-cigarette devices are easy to hide, and banning only the cartridges without banning the device itself may induce people to buy "space oil" illegally, so a comprehensive ban and a shortened grace period need to be implemented as soon as possible.
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• On Mar. 20, 2025, the Taoyuan Health Bureau of Taiwan, China, appealed to young friends and classmates not to give personal information to others to use, and not to help each other publish advertisements or the names and components of e-cigarettes and heated cigarettes, violators can be fined between 200,000 yuan and 1 million yuan, and reminded that the sale or advertising of e-cigarettes and heated cigarette-related brand peripheral products, such as leather cases, protective cases, or the publication of deformed text that destroys the brand of the product, etc., is also a violation, and the general public is requested to defy the law.
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• On Mar. 20, 2025, nearly 2 years since the revision of Taiwan's "Tobacco Hazard Prevention Act", local authorities have comprehensively and strictly investigated illegal e-cigarettes and heated cigarettes. The New Taipei City Health Bureau said today that as of the end of February 2025, the amount of fines has exceeded NT$140 million.
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• On Mar. 21, 2025, the "Global New Tobacco Brand and Market Development Seminar" hosted by 2Firsts opened in Shenzhen.
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United States

• On Mar. 16, 2025, the Kentucky E-Cigarette Act, which is pending signature by the Governor, envisages the creation of a Tobacco, Nicotine and Vaping Products Licensing Division within the Beverage Control Division, giving investigators the authority to inspect any premises that sell alternative nicotine, tobacco or vaping products without a warrant.
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• On Mar. 17, 2025, a multi-agency study published by a multi-agency team including Yale University revealed that manufacturers of oral nicotine products are attracting retailers with advertisements that emphasize product profitability, ease of use, and non-tobacco flavors, which may have an impact on consumers and need to be of concern to tobacco regulators.
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• On Mar. 19, 2025, Nebraska passed a bill to impose a 20% wholesale excise tax on nicotine substitutes, such as nicotine bags, which is expected to generate $3.4 million in revenue by June 30, 2027, and would take effect on January 1, 2026.
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• On Mar. 19, 2025, Blinc Group Inc., an e-cigarette company based in New York, USA, filed for bankruptcy protection in the New York Bankruptcy Court. The company's petition mentions liabilities of at least $1 million. CEO Arnaud Dumas de Rauly signed the submitted application form on March 14. A number of Chinese companies such as ICCPT, First Union, Jwei, SMISS, ITSUWA and Boshang were included in the list of creditors.
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• On Mar. 20, 2025, the founder of Fifty Bars, an American e-cigarette company whose business model is centered around selling products "made in the USA," has pleaded with lawmakers not to restrict the supply of disposable e-cigarettes from China.
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• On Mar. 20, 2025, TILT Holdings announced that it will complete the asset sale in the second quarter of 2025 and actively promote the certification of e-cigarettes in the European market.
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• On Mar. 20, 2025, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson spearheaded a letter to the Trump administration urging it to take action against the large number of unauthorized Chinese-made e-cigarettes and vape sales in the United States. The letter said that the massive smuggling of illegal e-cigarette products, which accounts for more than half of all e-cigarettes sold in the United States, undermines public health priorities in the United States and has led to a significant increase in the number of young people vaping e-cigarettes.
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• On Mar. 21, 2025, an annual report filed by the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force claims that the legal age to buy e-cigarette products should be raised to comply with federal law. Federal law states that people under the age of 21 are not allowed to legally purchase e-cigarette products. But in North Carolina, teens as young as 18 are allowed to buy nicotine products.
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United Kingdom

• On Mar. 16, 2025, the person in charge of the first e-cigarette withdrawal clinic for minors in the United Kingdom pointed out that although official data show that the proportion of children aged 11 to 17 is high, in fact, there are also cases of young children smoking e-cigarettes, and the scale of the problem has not yet been fully grasped, and there is a lack of effective coping methods.
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• On Mar. 16, 2025, UK retailers have expressed dissatisfaction with the imminent new e-cigarette rules, with 95% of merchants believing the new rules will hurt small businesses. With 95% of respondents believing that a taste ban would lead to a drop in sales, while 50% believing it would bring e-cigarette users back to smoking, merchants are calling on the government to strengthen enforcement rather than banning products.
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• On Mar. 17, 2025, according to a survey in Kent, 10% of students use e-cigarettes, and more than half do not want to quit. The UK will ban the sale of disposable e-cigarettes from June, and Kent plans to investigate again in 2026 to assess the effect of the ban.
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• On Mar. 18, 2025, an investigation in Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK, found that a teenager successfully bought e-cigarettes eight times in 66 establishments, and an online purchase test showed that all sites refused transactions, and the survey also found illegal high-nicotine e-cigarettes in some establishments.
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• On Mar. 18, 2025, British American Tobacco has launched an €80 million investment programme at its plant in Kanfanal, Croatia, for the production of new tobacco products and a €4.7 million biomass thermal plant, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 65%.
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• On Mar. 19, 2025, in response to the UK's one-time e-cigarette ban coming into effect on June 1, Imperial Brands has launched three new kits and 11 fruit-flavoured cartridges from the Blu Bar e-cigarette range to meet consumer demand. Each kit includes a rechargeable blu bar device and flavoured pods for £5.99 MSRP and comes in three new kit flavours: Watermelon Ice, Blueberry Ice and Blueberry Sour Razz. There is also a new dual-cartridge combo with an interchangeable retail price of £5.99.
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• On Mar. 21, 2025, a survey of more than 200 store owners conducted by Newtrade Media, a UK-based publisher of Better Retailing, revealed that more than half of stores have begun to reduce their assortment in preparation for a one-time e-cigarette ban on June 1.
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Malaysia

• On Mar. 17, 2025, The Star reported that stores in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Selangor, Malaysia, will ban the public display of tobacco products in closed cabinets from April 1. This measure is in line with the Public Health Smoking Products Control Act 2024 (Act 852), which will be implemented from 1 October 2024 and covers the registration, sale, packaging, labelling and prohibition of smoking in public places of tobacco products. The bill also includes a ban on the display of all tobacco and e-cigarette products in retail stores.
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Philippines

• On Mar. 17, 2025, the Philippine National Police seized unregistered e-cigarette products worth about $70,000 and arrested six suspects. The suspects face charges of violating laws by selling and distributing e-cigarette products without a license from the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry.
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• On Mar. 18, 2025, the Philippine Customs Service seized 182,250 disposable e-cigarettes and 80,800 cartridges in Valenzuela City, with a total valuation of 320 million pesos (about US$5.6 million).
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• On Mar. 20, 2025, the Philippine Customs Service (BOC) seized more than 112,000 unregistered e-cigarette products at the Port of Manila (POM) that were falsely reported as thermos cups with a total value of approximately PHP102.639 million.
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Belarus

• On Mar. 17, 2025, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus is studying the feasibility of a total ban on e-cigarettes and is considering the removal of food flavors from e-cigarette oil in response to cases of death of minors due to e-cigarettes.
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Poland

• On Mar. 17, 2025, Poland plans to pass a draft law in the third quarter of 2025 to completely ban the use of disposable e-cigarettes (whether they contain nicotine or not), strengthen the supervision of e-cigarette liquid ingredients, and restrict the market circulation of new nicotine products.
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Netherlands

• On Mar. 18, 2025, the first assessment by the RIVM shows that the Dutch flavoured e-cigarette ban has shown an effect, with a significant drop in e-cigarette usage among e-cigarette users, with two-fifths reducing their e-cigarette use after banning flavoured e-cigarettes. The RIVM has called for a similar ban to be introduced within the EU to further increase effectiveness and reduce cross-border purchases.
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Italy

• On Mar. 18, 2025, Philip Morris International Italia reaffirms its new goal of recycling 1 million pieces of equipment by 2025. The project plans to recycle more than 80% of raw materials, including plastics, metals, batteries, etc., covering IQOS, Lil and VEEV equipment. All IQOS stores and about 4,600 tobacco shops nationwide are participating in the recycling program (about 60% of the equipment is recycled).
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Thailand

• On Mar. 18, 2025, Thai Prime Minister was involved in the crackdown, and the police dismantled the country's largest e-cigarette smuggling ring, seizing 260,000 products with a total value of about $3.9 million. The Prime Minister pledged to destroy the seized items and will continue to crack down on e-cigarette smuggling.
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• On Mar. 19, 2025, Thai Prime Minister Petuntan said that he will continue to pay close attention to the problem of e-cigarettes, emphasizing cooperation with customs and other departments to expand the scope of the crackdown and severely punish illegal shipping companies, while the Special Investigation Institute (DSI) reaffirmed the legal penalties related to e-cigarettes, including up to 10 years in prison and high fines.
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Australia

• On Mar. 18, 2025, the Legislative Assembly of Tasmania, Australia, preliminarily passed the Public Health Amendment (E-cigarettes) Act 2024, which may become the first state in Australia to completely ban the sale of over-the-counter e-cigarettes and switch to a prescription sales model, and residents over the age of 18 need to purchase e-cigarette products from pharmacies with a valid prescription.
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India

• On Mar. 18, 2025, Indian media said that despite the ban on e-cigarettes since September 2019, illegal sales activities are still rampant, and there are irregularities in both online and offline channels. Social media has become the main channel for e-cigarette promotion, and many small traders are still quietly selling e-cigarettes.
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Denmark

• On Mar. 19, 2025, Danish authorities inspected 22 convenience stores in Copenhagen and found illegal sales of tobacco, nicotine and vaping products in 21 that were hidden in wall panels, packages, behind shelves and inside chocolate boxes. These products were banned because they did not comply with Danish sales laws or because they did not pay the relevant taxes.
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Spain

• On Mar. 19, 2025, Spain's tobacco control proposal is under review by the European Union, and if there is no objection to the flavored tobacco ban, the measures will start the approval process after April 28; If there is any objection, it may be postponed to the second half of the year. During this period, the Spanish Minister of Health proposed to limit the addition of flavors in e-cigarettes, and also planned to limit the concentration of nicotine in nicotine bags to 0.99 mg.
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Canada

• On Mar. 19, 2025, amendments to the Tobacco and E-cigarette Sales and Access Act, which went into effect on February 1 in Prince Edward Island, Canada, significantly increase the maximum fine limit for companies with continuous violations, which can be imposed by up to $25,000. Previously, the region had raised the minimum age to buy e-cigarette products to 21 years old and banned the sale of flavored products altogether.
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• On Mar. 19, 2025, the Canadian Cancer Society launched Aspire à mieux, the first e-cigarette quitting program for young people, which provides personalized texting, apps and social support to help e-cigarette users aged 18 to 24 quit smoking, with a pilot showing 25% of participants successfully quitting smoking.
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Georgia

• On Mar. 19, 2025, the Georgian parliament passed an amendment to postpone the tobacco production licensing system until January 1, 2026, and businesses without a license in early 2026 will face a fine of up to 50,000 lari (GEL).
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Russia

• On Mar. 20, 2025, Russian State Duma deputies proposed to amend the Act on the Blocking of Tobacco Sales Websites in Alternative Litigation to include provisions restricting information on homemade e-cigarettes and other tobacco consumer products.
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Maldives

• On Mar. 20, 2025, Maldives Customs seized a large number of e-cigarette products, totaling 2,062 pieces, including NanoStix, Terea cartridges, Caliburn cartridges, Vmate cartridges and e-liquid. As of December 15, 2024, the Maldives has banned the import of e-cigarette products.
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South Korea

• On Mar. 20, 2025, Philip Morris International Korea reported that new tobacco products accounted for 40% of net sales, with 32.2 million IQOS users, and 72% of users are expected to fully switch to the product. PMI plans to increase the proportion of new tobacco business to more than two-thirds by 2030, with a cumulative investment of about US$14 billion since 2008.
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• On Mar. 20, 2025, the Korean Society of Internal Medicine issued a statement calling for clarification of the causal link between tobacco and lung cancer, and demanding that tobacco companies admit responsibility for concealing harm, compensate for health damages, and share the cost of treatment for smoking-related diseases.
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Hungary

• On Mar. 20, 2025, the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) stated through the MTI news agency that the circulation, import, distance sale and retail sale of flavored e-cigarette products such as "Elf Bar" in Hungary are illegal, and violators will face heavy fines. The General Administration of Customs pointed out that e-cigarette liquid is a tobacco product subject to consumption tax and can only be sold in tobacco shops according to the law, but due to the ban on flavoring, such products cannot be sold even in tobacco shops.
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Vietnam

• On Mar. 21, 2025, although Resolution No. 173 of 2024 on the prohibition of e-cigarettes, heated cigarettes and health-harmful gases and addictive substances has been in force since January 1, 2025, these products are still widely sold in the Vietnamese market, especially on social networks.
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South Africa

• On Mar. 21, 2025, the South African Health Affairs Commission has resumed public hearings on the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Act, which proposes to make the regulation of e-cigarettes and e-cigarettes more stringent, treating them on an equal footing with conventional tobacco products.
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