International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO)

The International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO) was formally set up in June 2016, and registered as a civil society organisation in Switzerland three months later, when it set up its current website.¹ INNCO moved its offices to Geneva in November 2017.¹² However, prior to 2016 INNCO had existed as a “cooperative network”.¹

In 2019, INNCO described itself as a global coalition of non-profit consumer advocate organisations and stated that its aim was to “represent consumers of low-risk, alternative nicotine products and to promote tobacco harm reduction (THR) on the global stage”.³⁴ It says it seeks the adoption of “risk-relative and balanced harm reduction strategies”, and comprises 34 organisations from around the world that predominantly describe themselves as consumer-led vaping associations.⁴ See below for a list of members and affiliates.

INNCO has had a direct relationship with the Philip Morris International (PMI)-funded Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW), and its grantees. Knowledge Action Change, a recipient of FSFW funding, also had a key role in establishing INNCO as a lobbying organisation and framing its position on harm reduction. However, in March 2023, INNCO published a statement on its website saying that “it is no longer funded by the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW).”⁵ As of June 2023 the FSFW grants website shows the INNCO grant as closed.⁶

Funded by Foundation for a Smoke-free World

In 2018, INNCO was awarded a grant of US$100,300 from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW). FSFW is funded entirely by Philip Morris International (PMI). The purpose of the grant, as described by the Foundation, was “strengthening nicotine consumer organizations”.⁷ In 2019, INNCO received US$159,900 from FSFW to “develop a business plan”.⁸ In 2020,  INNCO received funding from FSFW for the third year in a row.⁹ The four grants to INNCO, totalling US$458,005 were for “General support to INNCO to assist the organization in its work as an advocate for tobacco harm reduction” and “Support to INNCO to assist the organization in its work to garner consensus and support for COP9 to consider harm reduction as integral to tobacco control”.⁹ INNCO received a further US$453, 555 for these activities in 2021.¹⁰ In 2022 INNCO received a total of US$769,208 from FSFW.¹¹ For details see Foundation for a Smoke-Free World Grantees.

In 2018 and 2019, INNCO’s website did not disclose its FSFW funding.⁴ As of October 2020 there was still no visible disclosure of FSFW funding on its website, in its public LinkedIn profile, or in its Twitter bio.⁴¹²¹³

In late 2020, INNCO added the following statement to its website:

“INNCO was established in 2016, well before seeking funding from our current funder, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (the Foundation). The Foundation is at present funded with a 12-year-no-strings-attached grant from Philip Morris International (PMI). Our grant from the Foundation is equally arms-length, to be used to fund work decided by our own independent Governing Board and General Assembly of full members, while overseen by its auditors and other internal working groups.”¹⁴

It also added a longer statement arguing that taking a grant from FSFW was not the same as being funded by the tobacco industry, and that “INNCO has nothing to do with PMI, and PMI has absolutely no control over INNCO”.¹⁵

Set up with help from Knowledge Action Change

INNCO was set up following a meeting held at the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) meeting in Warsaw on 17th June 2016 (see Figure 1). This meeting was convened by the organisers of the GFN – Gerry Stimson and other members of Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC), an organisation that was granted over US$4 million by FSFW between 2018 and 2020.⁷¹⁷ The notes of the meeting are published on the GFN web archive, with Paddy Costall of KAC named as the relevant contact.¹⁷.

Among the meeting’s listed attendees were Stimson, Julian Morris of the Reason Foundation, and ex-Institute of Economic Affairs, and Jeannie Cameron of JCIC International.

Created to influence WHO FCTC

In October 2016, the INNCO website stated that “The immediate objective for INNCO was to gain civil society consumer organisation stakeholder status and have a voice at the WHO FCTC COP7 conference in New Delhi”, to be held in November.¹⁸
At the June 2016 GFN meeting, Clive Bates of Counterfactual Consulting Ltd had introduced a discussion paper titled “The Case for an International Organisation to Represent the Interests of Nicotine Consumers”.¹⁹²⁰ It stated that “The idea to produce the paper came initially from the New Nicotine Alliance UK and the New Nicotine Alliance Australia and it is now supported in principle by a number of other organisations”.¹⁹ The document properties state that the author was Patrick Costall, a director of KAC.¹⁹²¹ The paper acknowledged that “most consumers do not belong, or wish to belong, to formal organisations” and argued the need for a new international nicotine consumer organisation as a way of “tackling issues at an international level, in particular with the UN system and WHO”. It identified the WHO FCTC Conference of Parties (COP) meetings as a “big ticket” measure that INNCO should target, stating:

“In 2016 there will be a meeting, in India, of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)… The COP will consider how new nicotine products, most specifically e-cigarettes, should be regulated… The resolutions of the COP are adopted by consensus, so it is important that pressure is brought to bear on delegations to prevent a consensus being reached on prohibitionist measures”.²⁰

Bates also shared a document outlining the processes and requirements for obtaining official observer status by the WHO FCTC, with certain text highlighted in red to show the WHO FCTC’s acceptance of “consumer groups”.²²

Co-opted Language of Public Health Movements

The 2016 discussion paper proposed a next step was to “seek recognition by UN and WHO agencies”, and suggested a way of achieving this was to adopt the slogan Nothing About Us Without Us, a phrase which has been widely used in community development and public health movements.²⁰²³²⁴.
The paper stated:

“there are lessons that can be learned from other areas… the whole notion of ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ came from the activities of HIV/AIDS activism in the 1990s… it has also become accepted as a principle for engagement by most agencies within the UN and WHO.”²⁰

This slogan was indeed subsequently adopted by INNCO, appearing prominently on their website.(see Figure 2) It was also used by members when protesting outside WHO FCTC COP8 in 2018 (see Figure 3).²⁵

Used ‘Harm Reduction’ to Attempt to Engage with WHO FCTC

The discussion around INNCO that occurred during the 2016 GFN meeting shows that INNCO’s strategy of using ‘harm reduction’ to advance its advocacy goals was based on advice from Jeannie Cameron from JCIC International. Cameron proposed that, “a strategy to engage with FCTC to promote harm reduction would seem the best and most promising avenue to pursue”, according to the meeting notes.¹⁷ She highlighted how harm reduction was “one of the key elements of tobacco control via Article 1 (d)…”.¹⁷.

Those recommendations were adopted by INNCO. In a public letter to WHO shortly before COP8, Nancy Sutthoff, the President of the Governing Board and the Asia Pacific Region Coordinator for INNCO, called on the WHO to:

“…reject prohibition and acknowledge ‘tobacco harm reduction’ and risk-proportionate regulation of tobacco and nicotine products that do not involve combustion as part of an effective harm reduction strategy, which is required and defined by Article 1(d) of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Treaty.”²⁶

Denied FCTC COP8 Observer Status

As of November 2019, INNCO’s attempts to achieve FCTC COP observer status had so far been unsuccessful. Its application to attend as an observer in 2018 was rejected by the FCTC Secretariat.²⁷ In November 2019, INNCO released a press release in which they accused the WHO FCTC Secretariat of “zero” transparency.²⁸

Lobbied COP8 via Twitter

Researchers from the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) analysed Twitter data to gain insights into activity of the tobacco industry and its allies in the run up to COP8, and their attempts to influence the FCTC.²⁹³⁰³¹ The analysis found that INNCO, its members, affiliates and associates made up a significant proportion of the total Twitter activity relating to newer nicotine and tobacco products (so called “Next Generation Products”, or NGPs) and harm reduction.²⁹ Specifically, they found that over half of the 50 identified as advocating for newer products were affiliated in some way with INNCO, either directly or with an INNCO member organisation, and that they were responsible for 63% of the tweets from that group.²⁹ The researchers concluded that:

“The extensive activity by NGP advocates with links to organisations funded directly and indirectly by PMI … as well as a substantial online presence by PMI executives themselves, suggests a strategic approach by PMI to influence COP8 debates.”²⁹

Mixed with Tobacco Industry Allies at COP8

Following their rejection from COP8, INNCO members participated in a side meeting hosted by Christopher Snowdon from the tobacco industry-funded Institute of Economic Affairs.³² Other attendees included Martin Cullip; Heneage Mitchell of Factasia.org, a group that claims to represent consumers of nicotine products, but receives funding from Philip Morris International (PMI); Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association (TVECA); and Simon Clark the Director of the tobacco industry front group Forest.³³³⁴

A video posted by Chris Snowden of the IEA in his blog dated 8 October 2018, revealed that INNCO Board Member, Kim Petersen, had also attended the UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York in September 2018.³²³⁵

Received funding from FSFW to influence COP9

In 2020, INNCO received US$65,000 from FSFW to engage in activities around the 9^th Conference of Parties of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (see below). The purpose of the grant was to “Support INNCO to assist the organization in its work to garner consensus and support for COP9 to consider harm reduction as integral to tobacco control”.⁹ The outcomes of the grant included the dissemination of research outputs developed by FSFW and its partners.³⁶

New Nicotine Alliance UK leaves INNCO

On 12 July 2019, the UK affiliate of the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA UK), which had described itself as “a founder member of the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO)”, announced it had ceased membership of INNCO “due to differences concerning future strategy, including funding arrangements”.³⁷

According to a NNA UK newsletter dated 6 August 2019, Gerry Stimson – who had been a Board member of NNA UK since at least 2015 – stepped down from the Board shortly after it announced it was leaving INNCO.³⁸³⁹⁴⁰ As of November 2019, Stimson was no longer listed on the NNA website as being part of NNA UK.

NNA Australia was also no longer listed as a member of INNCO in October 2020 (see below).

Criticised WHO around COP9

COP9 was held virtually in November 2021. Although substantive discussions and decisions on nicotine products were postponed to COP10, INNCO organised some lobbying activities:

• Published a report titled “Misinfodemic Dossier” criticising the WHO and Bloomberg Philanthropies.⁴¹⁴²
• Organised a demonstration outside the UK Parliament.⁴³
• Participated in a parallel event organised by CAPHRA.⁴⁴

INNCO was again rejected for observer status at COP.⁴⁵

Key People

Samrat Chowdhery was appointed to the new role of President of INNCO in July 2020.⁴⁶⁴⁷ A former journalist, Chowdhery is the founder director of the Council for Harm Reduction Alternatives (CHRA) and the Director of Association of Vapers India (AVI).⁴⁷ According to press releases “CHRA and AVI have been advocating for risk reduction in tobacco use since 2016, stating that access to less harmful alternatives such as vaping, snus and heated tobacco can help mitigate the high tobacco burden in India”.⁴⁷

The INNCO website stated that Chowdhery was “working on a project that evaluates the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of lower-risk options for bidi smokers and smokeless tobacco users, which involves opening cessation clinics across the country”.⁴⁶ Chowdhery had previously been one of the board members of INNCO.⁴⁸

Chowdhery was no longer listed as a board member by September 2021 and was replaced by Angeles Muntadas-Prim, chair of ANESVAP (Spain), was listed as President. INNCO’s website states that she is “co-founder/organiser of the THR Summit Spain (2018)” and was involved in setting up AHL Provape “a network of organisations in Latin America focused on vaping and THR.”⁴⁹

In February 2023, INNCO Executive Director Charles Gardner left the organisation.⁵⁰

A full list of board members and other staff can be found on the INNCO website: https://innco.org/about-us/.

Member Organisations

INNCO’s members, as listed on its website as of November 2019, included:⁵¹ NB Notes are added where organisations were no longer listed on the website.

• A.C.E.A.F. Vape – Association de la Cigarette Electronique pour Arreter de Fumer (Tunisia)
• Acvoda – Actief Vor Dampen (Active for Vaping, Netherlands)
• AIDUCE – Association Indépendante des Utilisateurs de Cigarette Électronique (Independent association of electronic cigarette users, France)
• ANESVAP – Association Espanola de Usarios de Vaporizadores Personales (Association of Spanish Users of Personal Vaporisers)
• ASOVAPE – Association Colombiana de Vapeodores (Colombian Vaping Association)
• ODC – Österreichischer DampferClub (Austrian Vapers Customer Association)
• AVCA -Aotearoa/New Zealand Vaping Consumer Advocacy Association [no longer listed as a member in January 2021]⁵²
• AVI – Association of Vapers India
• CASAA – Consumer Advocates for Smoke free Alternatives (US)
• CVA – Cyprus Vaping Association
• DADAFO – Dansk e-damper Forening (Danish Vapers Association)
• ECST – End Cigarette Smoke Thailand [no longer listed as a member in 2023]⁵³
• EU for Snus (Sweden)
• GVC – Greek Vapers Club
• Helvetic Vape (Switzerland)
• IG-ED – Interessengemeinschafft E-Dampfen (German E-cigarette Interest Group)
• M.O.V.E. (Medical Organizations Supporting Vaping and E-cigarettes)[no longer listed as a member in October 2022]⁵⁴
• New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) Australia [no longer listed as a member in October 2020]⁵⁵
• NNA Suitsuvaba Eesti (Estonia)
• New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) Sweden
• NDS – Norse Damselskap (Norwegian Union of Vapers)
• NBS – Not Blowing Smoke (US)
• Provapeo Mexico
• RDTA – Asociación Argentina de Reducción de Daños por Tabaquismo (Argentine Association for Tobacco Harm Reduction)
• The Vapers (Philippines)[no longer listed as a member in 2023]⁵³
• THR Brasil – Tobacco Harm Reduction Brasil
• THRA Canada – Tobacco Harm Reduction Canada
• UBV-DBD – Union Belge pour la Vape/ Belgische Damp Bond (Belgian Union for Vaping)
• Vapers Finland
• Vapers in Power (UK)
• ZVS – Zdruzenje Vejperjev Slovenije (Slovenian e-cigarette consumer advocacy group)

The following organisations joined INNCO after 2019, and were still members as of June 2023:⁵⁶⁵⁷

• ARDT Iberoamerica, South America
• ASOVAP Chile, ASOVAP Costa Rica, ASOVAP Peru
• CASA (Africa)
• THR Malawi, THR Nigeria, THR Kenya,
• Veipum Lifum (Iceland)
• Vallanpara Egyesulet (Hungary)

Affiliate Organisations

The following are, or have been, listed as affiliates of INNCO:

• Vapers.org.uk⁵¹⁵⁷
• Taiwan Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (TTHRA)⁵⁵⁵⁷
• MOVE – Malaysian Organisation of Vape Entity [no longer listed in February 2023] ⁵⁸
• CAPHRA – Coalition of Asia-Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates [no longer listed in February 2023]⁵⁸

Current lists of members and affiliates can be found on the INNCO website.

Relevant Links

• International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO) website

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World
• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World Grantees
• Philip Morris International

TCRG Research

L. Robertson, A. Joshi, T. Legg, et al., Exploring the Twitter activity around the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Tobacco Control Published Online First: 11 November 2020, doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-055889

Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products, Tweetable Influence: The Tobacco Industry’s Attempt to Engage in COP8, STOP blog, 12 November 2020, available from: exposetobacco.org