A third of smoked cigarettes in Belgium are illegal

More than 30% of smoked cigarettes in Belgium are illegal, 2.9% of them are counterfeits, reports Cimabel, the Belgian-Luxembourg Federation of cigarette manufacturers. It is figures are increasing. In 2024, 26.9% of cigarettes were illegal.

Illegal, but no counterfeiting

This study above all makes it possible to highlight the shortcoming of the Belgian state in the face of this phenomenon. The illegal cigarettes are cigarettes produced and bought abroad and then sold in Belgium. The process thus avoids Belgian taxation which is relatively important. Cimabel stresses that 45.4% of cigarettes are produced in Bulgaria, 14.7% in Luxembourg and 7.8% in Türkiye.

Customers are not always aware that they buy illegal cigarettes while others deliberately choose to buy on the black market.

Traffic networks

These illegal cigarettes arrive in Belgium thanks to organized networks which thus make important profits. And they may well increase since Belgian excisees push the price of packets upwards.

With these trafficking, Belgium shows a hole of 692 million euros in the tax budget between 2020 and 2024, reports the future. Police control actions and customs intensify. The Belgian-Luxembourg Federation of Cigarettes manufacturers mainly requires a re-evaluation of these excisees to reduce the profit gap between the black market and legal sales.