LATEST ALERTS

World INC-5 to be continued to find consensus on international plastics pollution law ...
Vietnam Instructions to strengthen prevention of heated tobacco product smuggling ...
United Arab Emirates ICPS announces 1st April launch of Integrated Central Customs Tariff System ...
Saudi Arabia Agencies newly included in National Committee for Tobacco Control ...
Jordan Government allows manufacture of heated tobacco devices ...
Kentucky - United States Bill on retail licence for alternative nicotine products goes to governor ...
France Tobacconists want drug trafficking law to include tobacco smuggling ...
United Arab Emirates Technical requirements for pouches issued ...
Netherlands Bill proposing registration for tobacco retailers passes to Senate ...
Estonia Second reading of bill to ban flavours in HTPs due to conclude next week ...
United Kingdom Report stage of Tobacco and Vapes Bill to start next week ...
Moldova MPs on both sides criticise proposed HTP and pouch restrictions ...

View all

Alternative tobacco and nicotine products in the UAE

Global business and regulatory news covering the alternative tobacco industry

12th March 2025

GCC unified standard for electronic tobacco alternatives nears adoption

11th February 2025

PMI hikes prices amid Egypt’s economic instability but steps up its investment

12th November 2024

Disposables and single-use filters under increasing pressure from regulators

More News analysis

Daily regulatory updates of the tobacco alternative sector. It includes weekly podcasts and monthly compilations

19th March 2025: United Arab Emirates: Today, the Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Ports Security (ICPS) announced the official launch of the Integrated Central Customs Tariff System for 1st April. This initiative is the first of its kind in the country’s customs sector, and aims to reduce transaction time, facilitate trade, and raise compliance levels. The Central Customs Tariff project, part of the United Arab Emirates customs platform project, is a federal system that includes electronic classification, categorisation, and updating of goods and merchandise, as well as the customs duties imposed on them, using 12 digits, in accordance with the tariff standards approved by the World Customs Organization and the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
18th March 2025: United Arab Emirates: The government has issued cabinet resolution (2) of 2025, regarding the technical regulations for tobacco-free nicotine pouches. The resolution, published in the official gazette on 30th January 2025, will come into effect on 29th July 2025. The standard specification (UAE.S 5061:2025) attached to the resolution, which was recently obtained by TobaccoIntelligence, outlines the requirements for the manufacturing and distribution of tobacco-free nicotine pouches in the United Arab Emirates.
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.
5th March 2025: United Arab Emirates: The United Arab Emirates has issued Cabinet Resolution No. (2) of 2025 regarding the technical regulations for tobacco-free nicotine pouches. The resolution, published in the country's official gazette on 30th January 2025, will come into effect on 29th July 2025. The full specifications of the technical regulation (UAE.S 5061:2025) attached to the resolution are unavailable to the public, but efforts are underway to access them.
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.
26th February 2025: United Arab Emirates: Dubai Municipality has launched monitoring campaigns and field inspections in markets, malls, and food establishments during the Islamic month of Ramadan (28th February to 30th March), to ensure public health and food safety across the relevant establishments. The inspections will cover different types of facilities, and will include monitoring environmental health and product safety, with special attention paid to the safety of imported consumer products, including tobacco and smoking products.
25th February 2025: United Arab Emirates: The Federal Tax Authority issued ministerial resolution 1/2025 introducing new Harmonised System (HS) code classifications for electronic heating devices used with heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes. This resolution supersedes and cancels the previously assigned HS codes established under law 236/2019.
21st February 2025: United Arab Emirates: The Federal Tax Authority announced in a press release yesterday (20th February) that it conducted more than 93,000 inspection visits to local markets across the country in 2024 – more than double the 40,000 field visits it carried out in 2023. The authority said these control efforts resulted last year in the seizure and confiscation of 11m packs of non-compliant tobacco products that do not bear the digital tax stamps. The director general of the authority, Khalid Ali Al Bustani, said these inspection visits aim to ensure tax compliance, combat evasion and prevent counterfeit excise tax products. He highlighted the role of digital technologies in monitoring and inspection and in strategic partnerships for market oversight, and the effectiveness of the Digital Tax Stamps system – implemented over six years ago – in tracking and verifying tax payments on 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.
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.
22nd August 2024: United Arab Emirates: The Federal Tax Authority announced in a press release that its inspection campaigns during the first six months of 2024 resulted in the confiscation of 5.52m non-compliant tobacco packages compared to 7.92m in the first half of 2023.
26th July 2024: United Arab Emirates: The Ajman Police has launched an initiative called “Your Life is Purer Without Smoking” to raise public awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco and to curb the illegal trade of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco.

Full-length in-depth reports with detailed data and analysis for individual markets around the world

29th October 2024

The Middle East: nicotine pouch market overview, October 2024

More Market reports

Regulatory reports

Detailed legal reports outlining industry regulation, analysis of the laws, and compliance requirements

7th February 2024

United Arab Emirates: heated tobacco regulation, February 2024

5th February 2024

United Arab Emirates: oral tobacco and nicotine pouch regulation, February 2024

19th January 2023

United Arab Emirates: heated tobacco regulation, January 2023

More Regulatory reports

Market data outputs, statistics and forecasts in interactive and downloadable format

25th February 2025

Heated tobacco markets database

30th January 2025

Heated tobacco pricing tracker

More Market data

Regulatory data

Up-to-date information about current regulations around the world

17th March 2025

Global regulatory tracker: heated tobacco regulation, March

17th March 2025

Global regulatory tracker: nicotine pouches, March

17th March 2025

Tamarind Intelligence Policy Radar, February

More Regulatory data

Sign up to our newsletter

Stay up-to-date with key market trends and regulatory news and receive complimentary data on a regular basis.

"*" indicates required fields

Corporate Email*

Name*

Email

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.