IQOS Smoking Room at Manila International Airport

A court in Russia’s Stavropol region convicted four local residents of illegal sales of disposable vapes, with the seized products valued at more than 26 million rubles (about $338,000). The regional prosecutor’s office said the organized group operated from March 2022 to June 2023, selling disposable electronic vapes in Stavropol, Nevinnomyssk and Mikhaylovsk, while the products lacked mandatory information required by law.

A former political aide has alleged that a RM50 million bribe was offered to Malaysia’s then health minister to abandon the tobacco generational end game (GEG) policy. The claim was published in an opinion article and on social media. No report was made to anti-corruption authorities. Despite the alleged rejection, the GEG provision was later removed from the tobacco bill tabled in Parliament in 2023.

China’s Nov. vape exports to the U.S. held at $549 million, following October’s $591 million record. 2025 YTD exports reached $3.72 billion, officially eclipsing 2024’s full-year total. This $1.14 billion 60-day surge signals a critical inventory overhang, heightening financial and regulatory risks for manufacturers.

At the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference on December 2, 2025, PMI CEO Jacek Olczak delivered a clear message: the company’s smoke-free shift is now its central strategy. From ZYN’s surge in the U.S. to IQOS’s global momentum and a changing regulatory tone, his remarks sounded less like an earnings update and more like a declaration of PMI’s smoke-free future.

The EUIPO has ruled that Imiracle failed to demonstrate actual commercial use of its “Elfbar Crystal” brand in Slovakia, and therefore rejected in full the company’s opposition to Shenzhen SKE Technology’s application to register the “Crystal” trademark. The EUIPO noted that the sales records submitted by Imiracle were limited in scope and that the product packaging was in Ukrainian, which it found insufficient to prove that the products had been placed on the Slovak market.

FDA’s launch of a web-based PMTA system signals faster reviews and, 2Firsts experts say, a possible inflection point for the U.S. e-cigarette market’s shift out of the grey zone.