A major new report from ECigIntelligence examines the Chinese vapour market and finds it could be threatened by a possible government crackdown – and the spectre of a takeover by the giant China Tobacco monopoly...

China’s domestic e-cigarette market has quietly grown to become the world’s third largest by value. With relatively low vaping prevalence, high smoking rates, and a huge population, it has significant potential for further growth. But...

The Indonesian Ministry of Industry is planning to hold discussions by the end of the year as it works on a new national standard for e-cigarettes ...

Taiwan’s Executive Yuan is expected to meet shortly to discuss the draft proposal to amend the country’s Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act submitted late last month by the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) ...

A new survey reveals that 80% of Europeans who switched to e-cigarettes to quit their habit have succeeded ...

Japan Tobacco (JT) has launched in the domestic market a new tobacco-infused vapour device “Ploom TECH+ with” a few days after the manufacturer posted less revenue for its reduce-risk portfolio in the third quarter of...

Chinese officials have inspected more than 1,000 e-cigarette vending machines in the last two months – but there is some confusion within the industry about the legality of their actions ...

South Korea has announced that it intends to double the National Health Promotion fee applied to e-liquids marketed in the country ...

Tobacco control advocates in Indonesia have questioned the government’s lack of progress on revising the regulation on the safety of addictive ingredients in tobacco products and urged it to get the ball rolling ...

A joint regulation of e-cigarettes that will apply across Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is expected to be adopted by 2022 – but there is some scepticism about the timescale ...

Taiwan appears to be heading for a blanket ban on e-cigarettes, while leaving the door ajar for the possible approval of heated tobacco products ...

China is currently debating a bill that would create vape-friendly areas and restrict the public use of vaping products ...

Sales of closed-system e-cigarettes in South Korea were down by 80% in the first half of 2020, a fall attributed by the government to its own ongoing policy efforts to discourage vaping ...

Chinese vaping manufacturer Smoore believes that the good round of investment that the company got after being officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a month ago prove its “financial strength” ...

The Food and Drug Administration in the Philippines proposed new restrictions for vaping and heated tobacco products in the revised draft guidelines regulating their manufacture, importation, sale, packaging, advertising, and distribution ...

A Beijing-based tobacco association intends to submit a proposal to the legislators at the city’s people’s congress, prohibiting vaping in public areas in the near future amid lack of vaping “provisions” in the current local...

Jordan has brought e-cigarettes under tobacco regulations, including banning their use in indoor public spaces – but the e-cig industry does not expect the new regulations to be fully enforced ...

Chinese authorities have decided to take further steps to toughen enforcement of e-cigarette regulations, increasing compliance checks in both online and offline channels ...

South Korea’s health minister Park Neung-hoo has announced a fresh plan to ban advertising and promotional activities for e-cigarettes and other tobacco-alternative products ...

Hong Kong will reintroduce a bill to ban tobacco-alternative products after local elections in September. The Legislative Council halted discussions on the existing bill due to a lack of time ...

The Philippines Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appears to be tightening its grip on the country’s e-cigarette industry with a detailed proposal to regulate vapour products ...

Proposals for the national regulation of e-cigarettes in China range from advertising restrictions to a controversial suggestion by the boss of a pharmaceutical company that they should be totally banned ...

The Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare has released a draft proposal to ban e-cigarettes, while leaving open the possibility of market approval for some reduced-risk products ...

World No Tobacco Day provides an opportunity to consider the approach that public health authorities, policymakers, and advocates around the world have towards the role of tobacco-alternatives products ...

The enforcement of the ban issued in China in late 2019 that prohibits the online sales of e-cigarettes as well as vaping advertising has proven relatively ineffective, ECigIntelligence has found ...

Juul is not having the best of times, with an increasing decline in sales leading the company to pull out of South Korea and some European countries – while its sales in the US are...

A large grouping of non-profit and health organisations has called on Indonesian president Joko Widodo to take a stricter stance against e-cigarettes and other tobacco products in the battle against COVID-19 ...

A judge in Seoul has dismissed a petition by the South Korean Electronic Cigarette Association questioning whether reports issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare recommending people not to vape were unconstitutional ...

British American Tobacco (BAT) is targeting an increase in non-combustible product consumers to 50m worldwide by 2030, from the current 11m ...

Fears over the coronavirus outbreak, and governments’ responses to it, have led to the cancellation of a number of vaping events that were scheduled over spring at locations around the world ...

Following his order that extended the ban on smoking in public spaces to include vaping, president Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has now issued a further raft of restrictions on e-cigarettes ...

British American Tobacco (BAT) has reported a 36.9% increase in next-generation products revenue in 2019 despite the recent and ongoing crackdown on vaping in the US ...

Less than a year after launching in the country, Juul Labs is stopping selling all its products in Indonesia while it puts new measures in place to combat under-age purchases. Juul also faces further legal...

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signed an order banning the import of e-cigarettes and e-liquids into Turkey ...

TobaccoIntelligence, a new service from the team that produces ECigIntelligence, is now available, covering the global tobacco and nicotine alternatives sector ...

The coronavirus that has so far killed more than 2600 people in China has had limited impact up to now in the vaping industry around the world, but severe movement restrictions have raised fears ...

The second largest Islamic organisation in Indonesia, with around 50m members, has issued a formal ruling banning e-cigarettes ...

President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign to increase annually the “sin” taxes on e-cigarettes, vapour products, and alcoholic drinks in the Philippines goes on. The Republic Act 11467, signed by Duterte on 22nd January, combines House Bill...

Malaysia is now expected to table its first e-cigarette regulation in June, but officials in Kuala Lumpur are still assessing how restrictive the new rules should be ...

PMI saw its market share of heated tobacco units in IQOS markets, excluding the US, rise by 1.4 percentage points to 5% last year, with a 44.2% increase in HnB shipments ...

The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare wants to ban practices such as the offering of discounts for e-cigarette or heated tobacco products and to make events with free giveaways of such products illegal...

Japan Tobacco (JT) is cutting the price of its Ploom Tech and Ploom Tech+ hybrid devices from 1st February as it continues to lag behind its chief Big Tobacco competitors in its home market ...

A plan by the Indonesian government to equate vaping products with combustible cigarettes has been criticised by a Jakarta-based policy think-tank ...

The South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection says it tested ten e-liquids labelled as having less than 1% nicotine and found half of them in fact contained more than that ...

ECigIntelligence is launching a new International Alerts round-up for Platinum + and Platinum Pro subscribers to enable them to stay on track with regulatory developments in international markets ...

Late November saw British American Tobacco (BAT) launch its “most advanced” heated tobacco product in South Korea – during a critical political period in which the government has taken a harsh stance towards vaping and...

Police in the Philippines have arrested more than 200 vapers after president Rodrigo Duterte issued a verbal order to enforce bans on the importation of e-cigarettes and their use in public ...

A revision of Indonesia’s main tobacco control regulation is under way, with the aim of banning all e-cigarette products, flavours and additives in the near future ...

Chinese e-cigarette companies have been caught in the country’s first civil court case for allegedly claiming that their vaping products pose no or little harm to people’s health ...

A proposal by the Philippines Department of Health (DOH) to ban e-cigarettes in the country has been turned down by lawmakers because it contradicted a previously approved bill on their taxation ...