Thailand Vape and E-Cigarette Black Market and Policy Market Intelligence

Operator and brand playbooks

Shenzhen-origin disposable brands (Snowwolf, Voopoo, Geekvape, Lost Mary cohort) dominate the device side. These manufacturers, mostly producing in Shenzhen and Dongguan, sell into Thailand through Malaysia-based distributors who consolidate ASEAN demand, into Cambodia and Laos border traders, or directly through container shipments declared as electronics. The March 2025 Laem Chabang interception (210,300 items, THB 40M, China-to-Myanmar declared route) is the canonical example of the transit-by-misdeclaration pattern.

RELX International (Hong Kong-listed) is the largest Asia-Pacific vape brand by retail and supplies regional gray demand through Malaysia. Smoore International (HK: 6969) is the world's largest ODM vape device manufacturer and supplies device shells for many of the disposable brands sold under different labels in Thailand. Neither company sells legally into Thailand, but both have material exposure to Thai-bound enforcement risk through their supply chains.

LIQUA, Ritchy Group is a major Malaysia-based e-liquid maker producing flavoured nicotine concentrates that cross into Thailand via the Hat Yai-Padang Besar and Sungai Kolok land borders. Vape Empire Thailand is a discreet-retail brand operating across Bangkok (Sukhumvit, Thong Lo), Phuket (Bangla and Patong), and Pattaya (Walking Street, Soi 6) supplying both Thai consumers and tourists; its retail network has been a repeated target of the Paetongtarn-era crackdown.

End Cigarette Smoking in Thailand (ECST) is the principal pro-legalisation advocacy coalition, founded in 2016 by Asa Saligupta and Maris Karanyawat through twelve social-media e-cigarette influencers. ECST is affiliated with INNCO, which is a grantee of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (funded by Philip Morris International), giving its advocacy a documented industry-adjacent funding link. ECST testified in favour of the Ad Hoc Committee's pro-regulation conclusions.

Action on Smoking and Health Thailand (ASH), Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Center (TRC), and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) form the primary counter-bloc. ThaiHealth (board chaired by the Prime Minister) funds tobacco-control research and disseminates anti-vape messaging; TRC produces the bulk of citable Thai-language vape-harm research; ASH coordinates community-level enforcement. These three organisations have publicly denounced the Ad Hoc Committee's pro-regulation recommendation.

The Tobacco Authority of Thailand (TOAT), state-owned cigarette monopoly, has the most ambiguous position. TOAT does not publicly support legalising vapes (it would lose share), but a heated-tobacco-product (HTP) carve-out is the second-most-discussed Ad Hoc Committee scenario and could be operationally compatible with TOAT entering the HTP segment as a licensed manufacturer. TOAT's quiet stake is part of why HTP-only legalisation got five committee votes (vs five for full status quo, two from the no-position bloc, and 22 to 26 for full legalisation depending on the breakdown method).

Origin mix (estimated share of intercepted devices, 2024-2025)