International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations (INNCO), the industry's umpteenth front

The International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations (INNCO) was officially established in June 2016 and registered as a civil society organization in Switzerland three months later, when its current website was created. INNCO moved its offices to Geneva in November 2017. In 2019, INNCO described itself as a global coalition of non-profit consumer advocacy organizations and stated that its goal was to “represent consumers of low-risk alternative nicotine products and promote tobacco harm reduction on the global stage"The coalition claims to seek to adopt "of the risk reduction strategies", and includes 34 organizations from around the world, including AIDUCE in France, which present themselves primarily as consumer-led vaping associations. In fact, INNCO has a direct relationship with Philip Morris International's Smoke-Free Foundation. Knowledge Action Change[1] (KAC), a recipient of funding from the Philip Morris Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, also played a key role in establishing INNCO as a lobbying organization promoting the tobacco industry’s position on “harm reduction.” In 2018, INNCO received a $100,300 grant from the Philip Morris Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. The purpose of the grant, as described by the Foundation, was to “strengthen nicotine consumer organizations”In November 2019, the INNCO website did not disclose its financing, particularly indirect financing from the cigarette manufacturer. A network created to infiltrate the WHO Framework Convention, the FCTC In October 2016, INNCO's website stated that INNCO's immediate goal was to obtain observer status as a civil society consumer organization within the WHO treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The goal was to be able to participate in the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the treaty, held in New Delhi, in order to influence the decisions taken. One of INNCO's priorities is to demand an end to the ban, regulation and taxation of new so-called recreational nicotine products in order to boost Philip Morris International's profits. Indeed, following the decline in consumption of traditional cigarettes, Philip Morris is banking on new products to compensate for the decline in its profits and ensure the continuation of colossal profits. ©Generation Without Tobacco

---

[1] Knowledge-Action-Change operates the Nicotine Science Policy website, which provides updates on nicotine-containing products, such as e-cigarettes and other non-combustible tobacco products. In 2017 and 2018, KAC received more than $1 million in funding from the Philip Morris Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. | ©National Committee Against Smoking |