Market & legal data in the tobacco alternatives sector in Oman

12th March 2025: Middle East: The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean published a post on 11th March on the social media platform X that called on smokers to quit smoking, highlighting that smoking might decrease life expectancy by ten years.
28th February 2025: Middle East: The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean posted that while smoking rates in the region are declining, there is still significant room for improvement. The WHO urged its Eastern Mediterranean Region member states to strengthen tobacco control measures, including smoking bans in public places, prominent health warnings, and enhanced support services for smoking cessation. Notably, the thread makes no reference to novel tobacco products such as e-cigarettes or heated tobacco products.
18th February 2025: Gulf Cooperation Council: The Technical Committee for Tobacco Products of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Standardization Organization (GSO) has preliminarily approved a standard introducing flavour restrictions, additional requirements for devices and batteries, common health warnings, and standardised packaging regulations across all GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – for both vaping and heated tobacco products (HTPs). The standard still requires final approval, and the text of the proposed regulation is currently unavailable. We are actively engaging with the relevant authorities to obtain more detailed information.
12th February 2025: Oman: Mansour Al-Hajri, chairman of the Health Committee of Oman's Shura Council (a consultative assembly), has said that Oman is the only Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country without a tobacco control law, and due to this, a draft tobacco control law proposal is under legal review before being referred to the government. State TV reported that the proposal was reviewed on 10th February. If approved, it will follow the legislative process, ultimately requiring the sultan's endorsement. The draft is not currently available and so it is unclear how novel tobacco and nicotine products would be regulated.
5th November 2024: Kuwait: The International Conference on Tobacco Control organised by the Ministry of Health has recommended that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries establish national observatories to monitor tobacco industry activities and align with the World Health Organization (WHO) standards on tobacco control. Additionally, the conference advocated for regulating novel emerging products in the region, such as nicotine pouches, and recommended increasing excise taxes on tobacco.
8th January 2024: Oman: The Consumer Protection Authority has issued decree 756/2023, raising administrative fines for using or distributing heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes. The minimum fine for a first offence is now OMR1,000 ($2,600) instead of OMR100 ($260), to be doubled for a second offence. If the violation is repeated, an administrative fine of OMR50 ($130) per day will be imposed, as long as it does not exceed OMR2,000 ($5,200) in total.
7th February 2023: Oman: The Consumer Protection Authority has issued a decree, No. 206/2023, raising the level of fines for using or distributing oral (non-smoked) tobacco products. The minimum fine for a first offence is now OMR100 ($260) and the maximum OMR1,000 OMR ($2,600) – up from OMR400 ($1,040) – to be doubled for a second offence.
23rd June 2022: Oman: The Omani Consumer Protection Authority today published a warning stressing its commitment to enforcing the ban on alternative (smokeless) tobacco products. It announced the arrest and fining of a foreign worker in the coastal city of Barka for selling chewing tobacco, which is banned under resolution No. (256/2015), amended by resolution No. (301/2016).

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LATEST ALERTS

Alternative tobacco and nicotine products in Oman

GCC unified standard for electronic tobacco alternatives nears adoption

WHO reports drop in tobacco use despite industry ‘interference’ in achieving goals

TobaccoIntelligence compliance calendar

Global regulatory tracker: excise duty, October

Regulatory database: international stakeholders in the tobacco alternatives market

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