New Tobacco Tactics Long Read on Duty-Free Tobacco

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A new Tobacco Tactics Long Read has been published on the duty-free tobacco sector. Written by Dana Al Sader, Dana Mustafa and Elena Villabona Palomero as part of the Capstone Seminar in the Master of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, and with support from the Tobacco Control Research Group, it takes a closer look at duty-free tobacco and the powerful lobby behind it.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), taxes are the single most effective measure for reducing the consumption of tobacco products and their associated health burden. Higher taxes save lives, reduce the burden on health systems, and generate resources which can be channelled into health, education and other areas which enable development and support wellbeing.

Yet cigarettes continue to be sold at discounted rates in duty-free stores at airports and other locations around the world. This is despite the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) calling on Parties to prohibit or restrict “the sale and/or importation by international travellers, of tax-free or duty-free tobacco products.”

Duty free also creates a lucrative incentive for smuggling, in that tobacco products bought legally in duty-free stores may then be resold illegally at higher prices.

As author Dana Mustafa explains:

“This article examines how the duty-free tobacco sector operates within global trade and regulatory systems, highlighting how untaxed tobacco sales can reduce government revenue, create challenges for public health policy, and increase illicit trade. Untaxed sales negatively affect broader tobacco control efforts, particularly where regulatory oversight is fragmented across jurisdictions. Industry lobbying plays a key role in shaping regulatory environments and maintaining loopholes that enable these practices to continue. Together, these patterns highlight how the duty-free sector represents an underexamined yet critical component of the global tobacco control landscape, positioning this article as a useful reference point for policymakers and public health practitioners to better understand and monitor its practices.”

Read the article:

See the Tobacco Tactics pages:

See also the TCRG research:

Featured image: James Richardson, CC BY 3.0

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