Italy\u2019s AGCM competition authority said Wednesday it had fined Philip Morris Italia seven million euros ($8.1 million) for misleading consumers \u2014 including minors \u2014 over the dangers its vaping products pose to health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe advertisements mislead consumers into believing the products are harmless to health or less harmful compared to other tobacco products,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Philip Morris said in a statement it \u201cstrongly contests\u201d the decision and would appeal.<\/p>\n
AGCM said it had launched an investigation into Philip Morris Italia after a complaint from Italy\u2019s health ministry.<\/p>\n
The authority said it found \u201cthe expressions and claims \u2018smoke-free\u2019, \u2018smoke-free products\u2019 and \u2018building\/planning\/accelerating a smoke-free future\u2019, used as part of a wider marketing strategy for its combustion-free tobacco products, mislead consumers \u2014 including minors\u201d.<\/p>\n
Consumers were lead to believe that the products \u201care harmless to health and\/or less harmful than other tobacco products, particularly traditional cigarettes\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n
It stressed that \u201cevidence gathered during the inspections and investigation actually indicates that current scientific and clinical knowledge does not support the claim that these products are less harmful or harmless, not least because of the presence of nicotine\u201d.<\/p>\n
Philip Morris contested the claims, saying its campaign \u201cwas not a commercial campaign to consumers\u201d, in which it \u201calways provides clear information on risks\u201d, but rather an institutional campaign.<\/p>\n
It said that the messages cited by the authority as misleading \u201care accurate and fully consistent with Italian law and the applicable European Directive, which uses the term \u201csmokeless\u201d to define those tobacco products that do not involve a combustion process\u201d.<\/p>\n
The tobacco company accused the autority itself of being misleading, \u201cthrough a decision that ignores the difference between smoking and smokeless products\u201d, one that could discourage adult smokers from moving away from cigarettes, it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy\u2019s AGCM competition authority said Wednesday it had fined Philip Morris Italia seven million euros ($8.1 million) for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16633,1215,5,14675,16634,16635],"class_list":["post-23764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-fine","tag-international","tag-italy","tag-mna","tag-philipmorris","tag-tobacco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}