TikTok failed to take action over accounts selling illicit tobacco on its platform, Better Retailing can reveal.

An investigation by Better Retailing’s sister title, Retail Express, involving reporting 15 videos under five TikTok accounts selling illicit tobacco for UK buyers, found the videos were still available on the social media site more than a week later.

The posts advertised deals including Amber Leaf 30g for £9 with free next-day delivery via Royal Mail.

Only after Retail Express contacted TikTok for comment were the illegal posts finally removed and the accounts banned for violating guidelines.

According to the company, its community guidelines are clear that the trade of tobacco products is not allowed on the platform, and between April and June 2024, of the videos removed for violating its policies on the trade of regulated goods, 97% were removed before they were reported.

However, at the time of writing, variations of these accounts are still publishing videos selling counterfeit and smuggled tobacco.

Illicit tobacco sellers are proving difficult to police online

Amy Sohal, owner of Premier – Ken’s Convenience Store in Winsford, Cheshire, said “people don’t seem bothered” about taking social media posts down that advertise illicit tobacco, “or they do, and the next day they’re up again”.

“People can go on holiday and bring back cheap tobacco, then flog it on TikTok and other sites,” she continued. “People keep getting away with it.”

Kate Pike, lead officer for tobacco and vaping for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and co-ordinator for Trading Standards North West, told Better Retailing: “It’s the responsibility of social media platforms to ensure that products sold on their platforms, whether it’s TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, are legal for sale.

“You shouldn’t be advertising cigarettes. In order to buy cigarettes – legal cigarettes – you need to have an economic operator identifier. I’m fairly sure those Tiktok shops do not. With the internet being international, it can be very challenging. For example, because tobacco will hit an algorithm on Facebook and be taken down, people will use code words to sell it. They call it ‘sellotape’, and then they just must use word of mouth so that people know that.”

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