One in Ten Cigarettes Consumed in the EU in 2013 Were Illegal; Dramatic Rise in Consumption of ‘Illicit Whites’

New KPMG Study for British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and Philip Morris International

 

London, June 24, 2014 – One in every ten cigarettes consumed in the European Union in 2013 were illicit, 33% of which were “illicit whites”, an emerging type of illegal, branded cigarettes manufactured for the sole purpose of being smuggled, according to a KPMG study published today. At these levels, EU governments lost approximately €10.9 billion to the illegal market.

 

KPMG found that while the number of “illicit whites” consumed increased by 15% compared to 2012, overall, the illegal trade of cigarettes in the EU stabilized, declining slightly from a record high of 11.1% in 2012 to 10.5% in 2013. This stabilization was due to a significant decrease in contraband cigarettes, legal cigarettes typically smuggled from low tax countries to high tax countries, as industry, governments and law enforcement increased efforts to curtail this illegal activity.