A crackdown on illegal tobacco by Trading Standards has seen retailers issued penalties worth £1.4m.
The watchdog was granted increased enforcement powers in July 2023, and in October of the same year began working more closely with HMRC to help speed up investigations and issue fines of up to £10,000.
By November 2025 civil penalties worth £1m had been imposed by National Trading Standards), local authority Trading Standards (NTS), Scottish Trading Standards Services and HMRC, with the £1.4m mark being reached in early January 2025.
The UK is Europe’s third-largest market for illegal tobacco and around a quarter of all cigarettes smoked in here are illegal, with fake, unregulated counterfeit cigarettes mingling on the black market with genuine products illegally imported from countries with lower rates of tobacco duty.
NTS says that in addition to receiving penalties, retailers caught selling illegal tobacco can be removed from the Tobacco Track and Trace system, ending their ability to sell any tobacco products.
Lord Bichard, chair of NTS, warned that “Illegal tobacco harms communities, undermines legitimate retailers and fuels wider criminal activity”, and that retailers considering selling such goods should “think again”, as “the organised criminals supplying you don’t care about your community, your business or your safety”.
