Whilst PMI is committed to providing adults who would otherwise smoke or use nicotine products with a range of science-based better alternatives to cigarettes, we are emphatic in our message: These smoke-free products are not intended for people who have never smoked or used nicotine products, people who have already quit tobacco and nicotine use altogether, or anyone below the legal age to purchase tobacco and nicotine products (being 18 or older as required by law).
Underage should NOT use any tobacco or nicotine-containing product. This is beyond question.
To achieve our vision of a world without cigarettes, we must do everything possible to keep our smoke-free products out of the hands of anyone underage.
Of course, this requires the efforts of all key parties. We strongly support regulation that ensures only legal age adults can buy tobacco and nicotine-containing products, as well as the strict enforcement of minimum-age laws.
Youth access prevention is key to our business
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.
But we also recognize that we, as a company, have a critical role to play in guarding against youth access to our smoke-free products. We do this in several ways:
- We uphold ourselves to strict marketing codes. These are rooted in the principle that we direct our marketing and sell our products to existing adult smokers and users of nicotine products.
- We have robust requirements of our trade partners. In 2024, 99 percent of our total shipment volume was covered by youth access prevention programs in the indirect retail channels, in line with our ongoing aspiration to maintain greater than 90 percent coverage.1
- Beyond our existing responsible marketing programs, we continue to look for, test, learn, and develop technology to guard against unintended access to product information, purchase, and use to prevent underage from initiating or using our smoke-free products.
- We use careful product design and labeling. The packaging of smoke-free products clearly indicates that they are only for adults, and we develop flavors responsibly in accordance with a governance process.
Whilst PMI alone cannot prevent people who are underage from smoking or using nicotine-containing products, there is a lot we can do—and are doing—to minimize the extent to which these products are accessible and appealing to them.
Strict marketing standards
We are clear about our core principle: We direct marketing of our smoke-free products to adults who smoke or use other nicotine products and do so responsibly.
To minimize the risk of unintended consequences, our robust Marketing Codes include the following rules:
- We don’t use images of models who are, or appear to be, under the age of 25 (or older if required in certain markets).
- Our creative materials must not appeal particularly to anyone underage. In particular, we don’t use characters from children’s TV, cartoons, films, other online video or audio programs, books, or nursery rhymes.
- Advertising and marketing materials are only placed in media channels, venues, events, or locations that are not directed at those under the legal age, and whose audience is reasonably estimated to be at least 75 percent adults (this percentage may be even higher where required in certain markets).
- We ensure that our marketing materials are not placed within 100 meters of, or visible from, facilities attended primarily by anyone underage.
- We don’t advertise on the front or back cover of any print publications destined for general circulation.
- We don’t engage in product placement in movies or on television.
- All advertising and consumable packaging for smoke-free products must have health warnings, even if the law does not require them.
We rolled out our expanded Marketing Codes in 2021 to ensure all our activities are directed toward legal-age smokers and nicotine users, and to minimize the extent to which anyone underage may see our marketing. We published these Codes in 2022 and updated them in 2025.
We also have a set of internal guidelines that provide more detail, including guidance for markets on how to set up effective youth access prevention programs.
We never place advertising, marketing, or sales materials in media channels where they are likely to be seen by those under the legal age. They are only used in locations where at least 75 percent or more of the audience is reasonably estimated to be above legal age or at least 18 years old in markets without a minimum legal age—and this includes social media platforms. Digital channels are vital for sharing accurate product information with legal-age consumers.
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, in 2024 we continued to pilot a controlled initiative launched in 2023 with digital content creators in selected international markets to further assess the responsible use of this channel. Creators are individuals who produce content related to our products, such as technical reviews, product unboxings, or personal conversion journey narratives, and are required to be at least 35 years old. Additionally, all published content is age-gated, ensuring that it is accessible only to legal-age users, and we only engage with digital content creators whose general audience is minimum 75 percent adult.
Robust requirements of our trade partners
Due to the nature of our business, we do not own or control most outlets where people buy our products: 99 percent of our sales are through a third-party retailer.
To ensure these retailers operate according to our standards, we set robust requirements for our trade partners. We work with them to ensure they understand why they should not sell tobacco or nicotine-containing products to those under the legal age. These measures complement local regulations for youth access prevention, which we comply with, and which retailers must enforce.
Our ongoing aspiration is that more than 90 percent of our shipment volume is to markets with a youth access prevention (YAP) program in indirect retail in place. This is a combination of guidelines and tools to help affiliates work with trade partners to guard against the sale of smoke-free products to underage purchasers. In 2024, markets representing 99 percent of our total shipment volume were implementing such programs, which supplement our Marketing Codes requirements.
The tools include templates for contracts requiring strict compliance with minimum age laws or, in the absence of such laws, a stipulation that retailers refuse to sell nicotine-containing products to anyone under the age of 18 or a higher age required by law. We have continued to strengthen our youth access prevention program for indirect retail:
- Increased global footprint: Markets where PMI has minimal business presence are required to comply with the program via distributors or third parties where such deployment is possible.
- Proof of performance guidelines for markets provide evidence of the program implementation.
- New centralized data collection and storage tools for program plans and results.
- Improved governance and program oversight by central and regional cross-functional teams.
Other tools include point-of-sale signage, communication templates, and talking points to guide in-person conversations.
Mystery shopper programs—in which legal-age adults attempt to buy our product and then report back to us on whether they were age-verified—remain an effective way to monitor effectiveness of our YAP measures.
In 2024, we completed the first phase of our global mystery shopping program, covering direct retail and online orders. The program was designed based on available industry best practices and deployed with the support of an external monitoring partner.
We are currently assessing the learnings from these markets and will use the insights to maximize the effectiveness of our control system, continue to improve it, and reinforce it across our markets.
Age controls
We continue to investigate, test, and deploy innovative technology designed to guard against youth access and minimize the unintended use of our smoke-free products. We have launched a series of pilots, including the testing of different user experiences, a suite of online age-verification mechanisms, and various methods to perform device activation.
To verify age online, different methods are used by various markets. One method is asking customers to upload a copy of their ID for age validation. Another option is using third-party databases, such as those from government agencies, telephone network operators, or banks, to verify the customer’s personal information and confirm they are an adult. There is also the option for a contact center agent to conduct age verification via a virtual video call.
We have continued to advance our commitment to develop, test, and deploy enhanced online age-verification technologies for our e-commerce sites. In 2024, we implemented these technologies in 37 markets, compared to 32 in 2023.
When the necessary technology for age verification isn’t available or when a person can’t be age-verified using digital methods, alternative processes are used. These include face-to-face age verification by couriers upon delivery or at designated pickup points.
Across all our owned retail channels, we require that consumers are verified as of legal age (or at least 18 years old in markets without a minimum legal age). And at our physical brand retail outlets, anyone who wishes to purchase our smoke-free products is age-verified by a trained salesperson, using official identity documents if necessary.
On-device access restriction through age-verification technology could serve as an additional measure of security in our youth access prevention framework. We are continuing to explore and develop technologies which could help prevent unintended access to devices without inhibiting legal-age user experience.
Product design and labeling
We apply strict rules governing how we present our products to adult consumers. Our smoke-free consumables packaging indicates clearly that the product is for adults, is not risk-free, and contains nicotine, which is addictive.
While flavors are essential in encouraging adult smokers to switch, we evaluate new flavor proposals (beyond tobacco, menthol, and kretek) to ensure they do not particularly appeal to underage.
At PMI, we know that preventing the unintended use of smoke-free products is fundamental to the sustainability and success of our business—as well as being the right thing to do. We have a commitment to society, which expects us to act responsibly. Only by focusing on providing better choices to the adults who smoke today can we achieve our goal for tomorrow: A smoke-free future.
1 Total shipment volume includes cigarettes, other tobacco products (OTPs), and smoke-free product consumables, See PMI’s Sustainability KPI Protocol 2024 for further details.
