E-cigarette Importer Loses Lawsuit Over Cigarette Tax in South Korea

According to a report from the South Korean news agency YNA, an e-cigarette liquid importer lost 25.2 billion Korean won (18.92 million US dollars) in a lawsuit over "cigarette taxes." The importer argued that they did not qualify as "cigarettes" under the law because they extracted their materials from tobacco stems rather than leaves, but this argument was not accepted. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled against importer A in their lawsuit to cancel the National Health Promotion Fee. A company did not pay tobacco taxes as they had declared that the e-cigarette liquid raw materials were extracted from tobacco stems rather than leaves, but after a customs investigation, they were charged 25.2 billion Korean won for the National Health Promotion Fee. The court ruled that the liquid imported by company A used tobacco waste including leaf veins, making it difficult to consider it as solely using tobacco stems.