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Correspondence to Dr Sungkyu Lee, National Tobacco Control Centre, Korean Health Promotion Institute, Seoul 04554, The Republic of Korea; [email protected]
After the introduction of heated tobacco products (HTPs) by multinational tobacco companies, Korea’s largest tobacco company, KT&G, also introduced its HTP, ‘lil (a little is a lot)’, in November 2017. A total of three HTPs, IQOS, Glo and lil, are now available in Korea. Sales of HTPs increased from 6.1% of the tobacco market in December 2017 to 9.1% in January 2018 of the whole tobacco market.1
New competitor, KT&G’s ‘lil’ and tax on HTP sticks
lil has a non-removable integrated battery and a heating blade similar to IQOS (figure 1). While IQOS requires a 4 min charge after using every HEETS stick, lil can be used for up to 20 consecutive Fiit sticks when fully charged. The suggested retail price for lil is 95 000 Korean won (US$95). lil can be purchased at a discounted price of 68 000 won (US$68) with a promotion code from lil’s webpage (https://its-lil.com/). After its initial release in 20 November 2017, lil was first sold only in GS25 convenience stores in Seoul, and then expanded to 7700 convenience stores across Korea including CU, Seven Eleven, Ministop and so on.2
At the time of release, all HTP sticks—Fiit (lil), HEETS (IQOS) and NeoStik (Glo)—were sold at a lower price (4300 won=US$4.3) than conventional cigarettes (4500 won=US$4.5) because of much lower tax. While the price of conventional cigarettes was 65% tax, the tax...