JTI has worked with Facebook to remove over 16,000 posts illicitly selling its brands since 2015.
The company launched Project Talon to combat the online illicit tobacco trade four years ago. It said such trade was still a growing problem, with both non-UK duty paid and counterfeit stock.
JTI is also looking to crack down on the growth of illicit tobacco factories, with 33 having been identified in the UK over the last four years.
The figures were revealed this week at a Tackling Illicit Tobacco Sales event in the Houses of Parliament, where JTI also announced the launch of a new nationwide programme aimed at preventing underage sales of tobacco.
It said 37,000 packs of illicit tobacco were smoked every hour in the UK, with packs of illicit hand-rolling tobacco sold for £3.50 compared with the cost of the genuine product of around £23.
The Grocer reported earlier this year that JTI had started to take out private prosecutions against retailers selling illicitly. It said this week it was also now starting to do this against illegal tobacco factories.
To prevent underage sales, JTI has launched a new scheme called Identify that uses test purchasing to highlight retailers that could be in danger of selling tobacco to anyone under 18. It then provides the retailer and store employees with training to help prevent this happening. The scheme will also apply to vaping products.
JTI is working with test-purchasing experts from a third party to carry out mystery shops using shoppers who are either 18 or 19 years old, but look under 25. If the server does not ask for an acceptable form of ID, the store is deemed at risk.
A recent pilot scheme in Tameside, Greater Manchester, saw compliance rates increase from an initial 39% pass rate during the first round of test-purchasing to 95% by round four.
“Our new Identify scheme aims to tackle the problem of underage sales by providing training and support for retailers, in particular to smaller, independent retailers who often don’t have the resources to provide the same level of staff training that larger stores do,” said JTI head of corporate affairs Charlie Cunningham-Reid.
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