Leading the battle to eradicate illegal trade.
Fighting illicit trade: Essential for delivering a smoke-free future
Why is confronting illicit trade key to delivering a smoke-free future?
The world has an unprecedented opportunity to eradicate smoking. Science and technology have enabled the development of better alternatives, moving a smoke-free future to within our grasp. It's paramount to protect consumers from fakes and prevent the smuggling and counterfeiting of our products.
To deliver a smoke-free future, we must ensure that there are no illegal actors sustaining a black market for cigarettes and other tobacco products. Cigarettes, for instance, remain one of the most common illegally traded goods in the world, with as much as 12 percent of total cigarette sales (excl. China) sourced from the black market.
Securing our supply chain
For PMI, eliminating the illicit tobacco trade has been a long-standing priority. We focus our efforts on securing our supply chain and protecting our products. And we do it by leveraging technology and innovation for the better: From multiple applications of authentication and security technologies to track and trace our products across the supply chain, to the use of machine learning to identify and prevent illegal online sales, technology is helping us detect and address illicit trade.
But if we truly want to have an impact on deterring illicit tobacco flows, and protect consumers and our brands from smugglers and counterfeiters, our internal efforts need to be coupled with strong cross-sectoral collaboration and partnerships.
A holistic approach for a successful collaboration
No one can fight illicit trade on their own. Public-private partnerships based on an inclusive, commonsense approach by governments, the private sector, and civil society are vital to helping combat the practice.
In today’s hyper-connected world—with growing concerns around global security, the proliferation of criminal organizations, and the surge of new digital tools—we believe that it’s more important than ever to sustain our collective
efforts and promote an inclusive dialogue around solutions to tackle this global issue.
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2.2trillion
The value of illicit products flowing globally from cross-border criminal operations, such as the smuggling of arms, tobacco, or pharmaceuticals is USD 2.2 trillion.
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2.5percent
The volume of counterfeit and pirated goods stands at 2.5 percent of total international trade.
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460billion
Between 10 and 12 percent of tobacco products consumed globally every year are illicit, corresponding to an estimated 400–460 billion cigarettes.
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50billion
Up to USD 50 billion are lost globally every year in tax revenues due to the illicit tobacco trade.
Latest articles
The cost of ignoring the impact of failed policies
KPMG released the data from its annual report on illicit cigarette consumption in the EU, Moldova, Norway, Switzerland, the U.K., and Ukraine.
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STOP ILLEGAL explores every aspect of the illicit trade problem and its far-reaching impacts, featuring blogs from our leaders and experts in the field.
