Hong Kong: Five Years After Banning Vaping, Plain Cigarette Packaging Finally Arrives

Hong Kong skyline in the morning over Victoria Harbour.

Hong Kong will introduce plain packaging from March 1, 2027, five years after banning e-cigarettes.

In the meantime, higher taxes are pushing more and more smokers to buy their cigarettes in mainland China.

The Council on Smoking and Health (COSH), a Hong Kong public body, has been calling for plain packaging since 2013 .

But the Hong Kong government says it is taking a gradual approach.

The sale of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products has been banned since April 30, 2022, while simply possessing them in public has been punishable since April 30, 2026 .

The stated aim was to prevent these products from becoming established before they created a “new generation of users.

” Meanwhile, cigarettes remained freely accessible, complete with their branding.

Smokers were not entirely spared, however: in 2023, cigarette taxes increased for the initial time in almost a decade, followed by another rise the following year, amounting to a 73.5% raise over two years .

One question remains, and Hong Kong will soon have to response it: now that its tobacco-control policy is becoming stricter, and e-cigarettes have been banned for years, what will smokers do?

While Hong Kong authorities justify their strategy by pointing to the decline in smoking prevalence, from 9.1% to 8.5% between 2023 and 2025, their own figures show that the number of duty-paid cigarettes fell by 39.4% in 2024 alone .

That same year, according to customs data, 92.6% of untaxed cigarette cases involved travelers entering Hong Kong with more than 19 cigarettes, the duty-free allowance.

One motive is simple: mainland China, easily accessible by metro, now offers cigarettes four to five times cheaper .

What should I do when my e-cigarette shows the “check atomizer” message?