New Research Suggests British American Tobacco Still Involved in Illicit Tobacco Trade
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New research from the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) suggests that British American Tobacco (BAT) may still be involved with the illicit tobacco trade — despite the company’s public commitment to support its elimination.
A team of researchers analysed 164 documents from between 2000 and 2014 which mainly concern East and Central Africa. They found evidence that BAT used its anti-smuggling programme to monitor and disrupt competitors, thereby boosting its own profits and influence. Its operations, which often involved informants and covert tracking, were outsourced to other companies to distance BAT from such activities.
Dr Allen Gallagher, research fellow and co-director of the Tobacco Control Research Group, and co-author of this research, comments:
“BAT’s anti-smuggling programme was not focused on eliminating illicit trade. Instead, it covered up evidence of the company’s product appearing illicitly in markets, only tackled illicit trade when the company felt it would financially benefit from doing so, and sought to bolster the company’s influence over governments.”
The authors argue that the findings of this research demonstrate the need to continue to monitor tobacco industry strategies and practices, including via analysis of internal, rather than just public-facing, industry documents.
Read the papers:
- British American Tobacco’s continued involvement in illicit tobacco trade, B. Gomis, A. Gallagher, A. Rowell, A. Gilmore,
- ‘To increase the available profit pool’ and ‘get a seat at the table’: using internal documents to understand British American Tobacco’s anti-illicit tobacco programme, B. Gomis, A. Gallagher, A. Rowell, A. Gilmore,
See also the Tobacco Tactics pages:
- British American Tobacco
- Illicit Tobacco Trade
- Tobacco Smuggling
- BAT Involvement in Tobacco Smuggling
- British American Tobacco in Africa: A History of Double Standards
Featured image: Globe House, British American Tobacco’s London headquarters. Philafrenzy | CC BY-SA 4.0