World Vapers’ Alliance

The World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA) is a US-based organisation which was set up by, and receives funding from, the Consumer Choice Center (CCC). CCC receives funding from the tobacco industry. WVA has also received direct funding from British American Tobacco (BAT).¹

Launched in May 2020, WVA lobbies against the regulation of e-cigarettes.

Background

On its website, the organisation states that it “amplifies the voice of passionate vapers around the world”,²³ and that over 50,000 “vapers… are fighting with us”.⁴ However, WVA does not provide evidence to support this claim.

WVA was listed as a lobbying organisation on the EU Transparency Register in November 2022. It was suspended in 2024,⁵⁶ and removed in late 2025.^{7 8} However, it continued to lobby MEPs (see below for details). CCC was also forced to leave the register after failing to comply with transparency regulations.⁹ See the Consumer Choice Center for details.

Relationship with the Tobacco Industry

The World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA) was initially presented as an independent partner organisation of CCC, which had provided an unspecified amount of “seed funding”.¹⁰ WVA later acknowledged it had been established by, and receives funding from, CCC.¹¹ In May 2021, CCC filed a ‘fictitious name certificate’, with the State of Virginia for WVA, which allows CCC to trade under the name of WVA.¹ CCC made a trademark application for WVA in April 2021,¹² and another for its logo in February 2023.¹³

CCC and WVA have also co-written several policy papers, which are published on CCC’s website. Despite this, WVA maintains that it is an “independent” organisation “representing the interests of consumers”,¹⁴ and that it “does not represent commercial interests”.⁵⁶

Red Flag Consulting

Between December 2019 and April 2022, WVA’s website was maintained by Red Flag Consulting, a lobbying firm which at the time had both CCC and BAT as clients. It has subsequently been maintained by CCC.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷ According to an investigation by the Daily Beast, internal sources and leaked emails and documents showed that BAT “played a central and hands-on role in orchestrating, directing, and funding WVA”. The investigation also stated that WVA was “the embodiment” of the tobacco industry’s strategy of crafting astroturfing campaigns.¹ Documents obtained by the Daily Beast indicated that WVA “acknowledged internally that it was presenting a false outward image” and that it was engineering “seemingly organic letters” in the Netherlands. The letters were from “supporters” who wanted e-cigarette regulations rolled back, which were then sent to members of the Dutch and European Parliaments.¹

A statement on CCC’s website dismissed the accusations, referring to “anonymous claims from disgruntled former subcontractors”.¹⁸ In response to the reports, a BAT spokesperson said it supports organizations that “contribute to the debate on issues that are important to our consumers, in particular tobacco harm reduction.”¹⁹

In an article published in 2023, The Times reported that executives at BAT had previously received regular briefings on WVA’s campaign efforts. A source told the newspaper that senior employees at Red Flag Consulting would report back to BAT executives to give updates on how the “campaigns [were] doing [and] trying to quantify if it was having an impact on EU legislators”. The source also said BAT viewed WVA as a “campaigning vehicle” which they used because “nobody’s going to listen to a tobacco company” arguing against regulations for products it sold.²⁰

CCC’s US tax returns show that it paid Red Flag $2.2 million in 2021 for “strategic consultancy”.²¹ In 2022 CCC paid a further US$200,000 to Red Flag.²²

Red Flag stated in July 2022 that WVA was no longer a client.²³

Other consultancy payments

CCC has paid consultancy fees to WVA director Michael Landl (see below).²²²⁴

It also made payments to a Barcelona-based events company with WVA on its client list.²²²⁴

CCC has also paid consultancy fees to Mark Oates, the director of two other campaigning organisations: We Vape, and the Snus and Nicotine Pouch Users Alliance (SNPUA).²⁵ See We Vape for details.

Staff

Many of WVA’s staff members formerly worked for Students for Liberty (SFL), an American libertarian organisation linked to billionaires Charles and David Koch, some also work for the parent organisation CCC.²⁶²⁷²⁸

Michael Landl, Director. He is listed as a supporter of Rights4Vapers, a Canadian e-cigarette lobbying organisation, which is also a member of WVA (see below for details).¹⁹²⁹³⁰ Landl received consultancy payments of around US$120,000 from CCC in 2022,²² 2023,²⁴ 2024,³¹ and 2025.³²

A list of current staff members can be found on the WVA website.

Advisory Board Members

The following are or have been members of the WVA advisory board:²⁸

• Professor Bernd Mayer, Scientific Advisor. He advocated for e-cigarettes to be used as a smoking cessation tool at a press event organised by BAT.³³ He also spoke at CCC’s “Nicotine is Not Your Enemy Soirée” event, which took place during the 8^th Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).³⁴
• Kurt Yeo, Co-founder of Vaping Saved My Life (South Africa).
• Joseph Magero, Chairman of Campaign for Safer Alternatives (Africa).
• Carmine Canino, President of Associazione Nazionale per i Vapers Uniti (Italy).
• Andrew Urushadze, Former Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia.
• Brian Marlow, Executive Director of the Australian Taxpayers Alliance (ATA) and Director of ‘Legalise Vaping Australia’ (LVA) – an offshoot of ATA and MyChoice Australia, supported by the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA).³⁵

Activities

Campaigns around COPs

COP 9

Investigations by Le Monde and The Investigative Desk showed that WVA was actively lobbying against the regulation of e-cigarettes before and during time of the meeting of the 9th Conference of the Parties (COP 9) in November 2021, and that a public relations company associated with BAT, Red Flag Consulting, was involved in organising the campaign.³⁶ Videos on the WVA YouTube channel depicted the organisation’s activities before and during COP 9, including its “Back Vaping Beat Smoking” branded campaign van, and its presence in Geneva although COP was held virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.³⁷ In 2023, The Times reported that WVA had toured Europe in this van, handing out free branded merchandise, and urged users to write to MPs.²⁰³⁸

COP 10

Ahead of COP 10, initially scheduled to be held in Panama in November 2023 but postponed to February 2024, WVA published an article arguing that “the WHO has neglected evidence” for the use of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid because “it has already taken a side in the vaping debate”. It also argued that prohibition would lead to “irreversible illicit trade”.³⁹

WVA subsequently published an article which referred to supposed “scandals” around COP10 relating to the use of public funds.⁴⁰

WVA also criticised the “exclusion of consumers from the decision-making process”.⁴¹ The WVA director stated that restricting access to nicotine products would “ drive people back to more harmful smoking habits and potentially to the black market”.⁴¹

WVA was also very active in the run up to and during COP 11 in 2025.

• See Interference around COP 11 & MOP 4 for details

Lobbying and campaigning on product regulation

European Union

WVA has lobbied against e-cigarette flavour bans in several EU countries, including Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland.⁴²⁴³ In May 2022, they delivered an open letter to the Swedish parliament and placed an art installation in front of the European Parliament which stated: “Flavours help smokers quit”.⁴⁴

WVA’s website hosts a petition to European Parliamentarians but does not state how many people have signed it, when the petition started or when it will be delivered. The petition states: “NO to flavour bans, NO to lower nicotine levels, NO to treating vaping like smoking, NO to higher taxation, YES to freedom of choice and health”.⁴⁵

In 2022, WVA’s website invited people to take action to “make vaping part of Europe’s plan to beat cancer” but did not list any members or contributors.⁴⁶

In August 2022, the European Commission registered a European Citizens Initiative (ECI) which called for a “tobacco-free generation by 2030”. The ECI, which was organised by the Spanish NGO nofumadores.org, called for “ending the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to citizens born since 2010.”⁴⁷ In response, WVA’s director Landl said the ECI showed “widespread misinformation”, that the rules would “generate a massive black market” and that it is “morally wrong to deny harm reduction to younger generations.”⁴⁸

In November 2024 WVA presented a petition to the EU parliament.⁴⁹⁵⁰ This was after WVA had been suspended from the EU transparency register,⁵ although there were reports that it continued to lobby MEPs.⁵⁰⁵¹

In 2024, WVA also began promoting the ‘Swedish experience’, arguing for regulation favouring newer products in the EU, and against measures designed to reduce youth use such as flavour restrictions.⁵²

• For more on this use of this narrative, see Health Diplomats – which runs the Smoke Free Sweden campaign – and Quit Like Sweden. See The Swedish Experience, for official public health data on tobacco use in Sweden, and Snus and Nicotine Pouches for more about these products.

UK

In August 2022, WVA, along with We Vape, called on the UK Government to influence the World Health Organizations (WHO) in favour of tobacco harm reduction and e-cigarettes.⁵³ It planned a “Back Vaping Beat Smoking” campaign for October 2022, including a trip to the European Parliament. ⁵⁴

WVA has also lobbied against the UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill, and the generational sales ban.⁵⁵ In October 2023, WVA campaigned during the UK Conservative Party Conference, together with CCC’s nicotine pouch group Considerate Pouchers, and We Vape and SNPUA.⁵⁶⁵⁷

In 2023, WVA responded to a UK government consultation on tackling youth vaping.⁵⁸ The submission opposed potential restrictions on e-cigarette flavours and a proposed ban on single use (disposable) e-cigarettes. It also argued that the inclusion of heated tobacco products in any such ban would lead to smuggling.⁵⁸²⁰ It has run a ‘Save Flavours, Save Disposables’ campaign on its website and on social media,⁵⁹⁶⁰ urging readers to write to their MPs and engage in government consultations. (See We Vape for its similar campaign). In November 2024 it conducted a member survey on potential regulations, framing “[f]lavour bans, higher taxes, tighter restrictions” as “counterproductive policies”.⁶¹

• See also Interference with Endgame Policies for more on this topic.

South Africa

In February 2022, a video on its YouTube channel argued that proposed regulations in South Africa “would severely restrict vaping in the country and what impact they can have on consumers and on public health”.⁶² South Africa is a growing market for e-cigarettes, including BAT’s products.

Australia

In July 2022, WVA co-signed a letter to Mark McGowan, the Premier of Western Australia, opposing the closure of e-cigarette stores in the region. In Australia, e-cigarettes containing nicotine can only be purchased from pharmacies with a prescription.⁶³ The letter states: “we do not represent industries; we are only concerned about access to a life-saving alternative to smoking for adult consumers,” adding, without providing accompanying evidence, “this will push many vapers back to smoking or the black market, placing them in an abhorrent situation.”⁶⁴

Canada

In January 2026, WVA published an article about Canada’s policy on e-cigarettes,⁶⁵ In May it reported the publication of a CCC report which criticised a number of Canadian public health organisations.⁶⁶⁶⁷

WVA describes the Canadian organisation Rights4Vapers, as a “partner”.¹⁹⁶⁶⁶⁸ Rights4Vapers has lobbied the Canadian parliament in relation to e-cigarettes,⁶⁹ and began a campaign on nicotine pouches in 2026.⁷⁰ The Rights4Vapers’s website does not list its members or state how it is funded.⁷¹⁷² It describes itself as an “informal collection of committed volunteers” with “unpaid academic advisors”.¹⁹⁷³

Relevant Link

World Vapers’ Alliance website

Tobacco Tactics Resources

• Consumer Choice Center
• Lobby Groups