26 Jan 2010. Tobacco plants could help wean the world from fossil fuels, according to scientists from the University of California, Berkeley.
» read more

SOUTH KOREA

KT&G forms alliance with Imperial Tobacco Group

26 Jan 2010. Kwak Young-kyoon, President of KT&G, South Korea's foremost tobacco company, and Andrew Lochrie, regional director of Asia & Pacific at Imperial Tobacco Group, signed an alliance agreement under which KT&G will manufacture Imperial products.
» read more

GERMANY

Higher tobacco taxes push smokers to contraband cigarettes

26 Jan 2010. A growing number of German smokers are turning to contraband cigarettes in response to higher tobacco taxes, according to research just published. Instead of reducing the number of cigarettes smoked, the tax has only increased the number of illegal cigarettes consumed.
» read more

UNITED STATES

New York City loses cigarette tax case

25 Jan 2010. New York City can’t use a federal racketeering law to accuse discount cigarette retailers of evading hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes on Internet sales, the US Supreme Court ruled.
» read more

NORWAY

Cigarette companies excluded from wealth fund

20 Jan 2010. Norway has dropped 17 tobacco companies, including top cigarette makers like Altria, Lorillard, Philip Morris and British American Tobacco, from its USD 450 billion (EUR 317 billion) wealth fund for ethical reasons.
» read more

THAILAND

PMI under investigation

18 Jan 2010. American tobacco giant Philip Morris' legal troubles in Thailand appear to have deepened, with a commerce ministry probe having determined that the firm likely breached the Foreign Business Act (FBA), a senior ministry source said.
» read more

CHINA

Pilot project to ban smoking in 7 cities

18 Jan 2010. China is the world's largest consumer of tobacco and home to some 350 million smokers. Current legislation bans smoking in certain public places, but experts say enforcement is poor.
» read more

SWEDEN/ DENMARK

Swedish Match and STG form new company

15 Jan 2010. Swedish Match AB has signed a letter of intent with Scandinavian Tobacco Group to form a company combining the tobacco businesses of STG with the premium and machine made cigar businesses of Swedish Match, with the exception of the US mass market cigar business.
» read more

UNITED STATES

Federal Court rules FDA cannot regulate e-cigarettes

14 Jan 2010. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the FDA may not regulate e-cigarettes as drugs or medical devices.
» read more

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Price of cigarettes may double

13 Jan 2010. The price of a packet of 20 cigarettes should double to about AED 14 (EUR 2.68), the ministry of health (MoH) has proposed, to help get people to ditch the habit.
» read more

Current issue