The Shortage Of Electronic Cigarettes in Russia: When Black Products Exit The Market, White Products Can't Keep Up

According to Business FM's report on October 29th: Consumers have reported that since mid-August, the varieties of e-cigarettes and e-liquids in stores and chain channels have sharply decreased; by early October, the top-selling e-liquids had almost disappeared from large tobacco chain stores, leaving only low-priced or products of questionable quality. A few common brands could still be purchased, but the retail prices had risen by approximately 1.5 times compared to the early summer.
Several e-cigarette stores summarized the reasons as follows: Firstly, the consumption tax on e-liquids has increased from 20 rubles per milliliter (about 0.25 US dollars) to 44 rubles (about 0.55 US dollars) in the past two years. Some merchants found it difficult to bear the compliance costs and chose to remain in the "grey area". Secondly, since August, products that did not comply with regulations would bear criminal responsibility, and the starting point for the so-called "large-scale circulation" was only 100,000 rubles (about 1,250 US dollars), and the maximum penalty could be up to 3 years. A chain founder named Alexey, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "90% of e-cigarettes are actually 'black goods'. The original factory is from China, but they enter through parallel import (commonly known as water goods), without paying consumption tax, through freight forwarders. Even if they have labels, many are duplicate or incorrect codes of 'honest labels', and there is no traceable record of cross-entity transfer. The store owners were worried about going to prison and huge fines, so they took the goods off the shelves."
In terms of logistics, the respondents mentioned that there were indeed trucks transporting to Russia that were stuck at the border with Kazakhstan, causing local delivery delays, but all emphasized that logistics was not the main cause.

Pitersmoke franchise founder Alexey said, "The proportion of 'white goods' is extremely low, coupled with the increase in tax burden, has pushed the compliant retail price to significantly rise, suppressing demand. Take Waka as an example: The one-time e-cigarette (10,000 puffs) in our store has a compliant price of 2,690 rubles (about 33 US dollars); while in non-licensed, non-compliant, and through non-regular channels imported stores, the price is 1,490 rubles (about 18 US dollars). The difference is 1,200 rubles (15 US dollars) per unit, which is a very steep increase in the terminal price for compliant operators." "The 'white goods' channel also reflects the difficulty in competing with the 'black goods' channel; however, not all chains consider it an 'acute shortage'. Good Vape national chain public relations director Ekaterina Markvart said: 'It's not a 'serious shortage'. According to market rules, the brands that exit will be replaced by brands willing to operate in accordance with the new regulations. We can find sufficient compliant products and currently can meet customer needs."
At the same time, the report pointed out that the government has submitted a bill to the State Duma, proposing to empower each region to prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes; Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Tyumen Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, etc. were mentioned as regions that are likely to be the first to implement this.