Illicit Trade

Illicit trade is fuelled by excessive regulation and excise increases. We are totally opposed to illicit trade. It deprives retailers of legitimate sales and governments of taxes. Counterfeit products are not made to the same high standards as legitimate products.

Organised criminal gangs also participate in illicit trade and use such activities to fund other activities to the detriment of civilised society. Criminals are also unlikely to respect laws such as those that prevent sales to minors.

We tackle illicit trade with dedicated security experts, working to gather and share anti-criminal intelligence, partnering with law enforcement and border control agencies, using track and trace technology and conducting forensic analysis. We work collaboratively within industry working groups and with governments through Memoranda of Understanding and co-operation agreements.

Our policy is to only supply our products to approved customers and markets. We work with customers to ensure that they are aware of our policy and their responsibilities to have control in their supply chain. To address supply chain integrity we strictly apply a ‘Know Your Customer and Contractor’ process.

For more information, view Imperial Tobacco’s interactive document Working together to tackle illicit trade