How we are combatting underage use of our smoke-free products
Minors should NOT use any tobacco or nicotine-containing product. As a company, we have a critical role to play in guarding against youth access.
So real-world evidence is showing us that these products can help lower the number of smoking-related diseases, but they’re still not risk-free. And as a huge multinational company, these products are in markets across the globe.
What are you doing to stop underage use? These products we produce are for adults only. We have very strict controls in terms of limiting the access of youth to these products. We develop our communication, which is clearly geared just to the adults.
In all of our own retail channels, we have age verification to make sure that it’s just the adult person who has access to these products, and we work with all our partners, such as distributors and the others, to follow the same principles.
Youth access prevention is key to our business
Find out why we take youth access prevention so seriously and what we're doing to stop youth accessing our products.
Youth access prevention is a key part of our transformation
Stacey Kennedy, President, Americas Region and CEO of PMI’s U.S. business, speaks to camera:
We have a whole robust plan around how we make sure that we are not attracting unintended audiences, particularly youth.
Stefano Volpetti, President, Smoke-Free Inhaled Products and Chief Consumer Officer, speaks to camera:
First, we start by designing our smoke-free products for adult smokers in every single detail from product to packaging to labelling.
Stacey Kennedy continues:
We have our own marketing code of conduct that makes sure that we’re monitoring who's consuming our products and making sure that it is not youth.
Jacek Olczak, Chief Executive Officer, speaks to camera:
So I think it is absolutely perfectly doable to protect the youth, the underage people, while at the same time help the adult smokers.
Stefano Volpetti continues:
But this cannot be done by one company alone.
To create such an immense shift, it is important to have the right regulatory framework and the right support from civil society.
Philip Morris International logo is seen on screen.
How we guard against youth access to our products
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We only direct our marketing and sell our products to existing adult smokers and nicotine users.
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In 2024, 99 percent of our total shipment volume was covered by youth access prevention programs in our indirect retail channels.
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We continue to look for, test, learn, and develop technology to guard against unintended access to product information, purchase, and use to prevent youth from initiating or using our smoke-free devices.
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We use careful product design and labeling. The packaging of smoke-free products clearly indicates that they are only for adults.
