2025 – A Year in Review

2025 was the year when Tax Stamp & Traceability News™ merged with Authentication & Brand News™ to form what is now Tax Stamp & Authentication News™ (TSAN). This merge reflects the reality of today’s markets and technologies, where government revenue recovery systems are embracing more products and functions, and brand protection programmes are seeking solutions that also allow them to comply with government regulations.

With this convergence in mind, let’s now look back at some of the challenges, technologies and policy responses that have shaped these different sectors over the past 12 months.

The next wave of technologies

A defining feature of 2025 was the breadth of new anticounterfeiting innovation – not just incremental upgrades to existing tools, but new materials, new physics, and new ‘phygital’ verification models. Several examples stood out.

First, anticounterfeiting features are increasingly combining with other functions on product packaging.

For example, packaging films with colour-changing and fluorescing properties have been developed to extend shelf life, indicate spoilage, and authenticate products – all in one go.

Second, authentication is continuing to move into multi-mode optical effects that are harder to simulate, such as dual fluorescence / phosphorescence from a single molecule, tunable infrared (IR) film that can alter hidden IR patterns on demand, and smartphone-triggered light emission.

Third, the industry is – to an extent – moving away from ‘QR alone’, towards QR upgrades (layered QR, holographic QR) and, in pharma, even beyond the pack to the dose itself.

Finally, security in 2025 wasn’t only physical (of course), with the World Economic Forum identifying watermarking in AI-generated content as one of the top 10 emerging technologies of the year.

One device to authenticate them all

An interesting initiative in 2025 was the move toward unified authentication tools that eliminate the need for enforcement officers to carry multiple devices or apps.

US Customs and Border Protection’s ‘One Device’ platform has consolidated numerous brand-specific authentication solutions onto one smartphone, while researchers from the University of Brighton, UK have introduced a universal handheld detector for active pharmaceutical ingredients in general medicines.

These developments mirror a longstanding advantage of national tax stamp and product marking programmes: when all products bear the same security label and features, they can be authenticated with a single, standardised tool.

India’s QR code crisis

India’s ‘QR code crisis’ became one of 2025’s defining cautionary tales. Rampant cloning of QR codes on counterfeit medicines was one of the factors leading to the withdrawal of India’s pharma export serialisation mandate, and the call for a reassessment of barcode expansion on domestic drugs.

India’s experience exposed the fundamental weakness of digital-only, printed-code traceability systems, reaffirming that QR codes alone cannot authenticate anything. It brought renewed attention to the value of layered systems – pairing digital identifiers with physical security features – as seen in national excise stamp programmes, where a single secure label enables authentication across all brands without fragmented apps or devices.

Despite this negative experience, governments in general continue to mandate QR and other 2D barcodes for supply chain traceability programmes, both for pharma and other regulated sectors – because these codes are cheap, simple, and already entrenched in global standards and legal frameworks.

Illicit cigarettes surge globally

Illicit cigarettes surged across the globe in 2025, overwhelming policy frameworks from Australia to South Africa and the EU.

In Australia, the market deteriorated so badly that major retailers began abandoning cigarette sales entirely, ceding the field to illicit suppliers. New York recorded 80% illicit consumption, South Africa 60%, and the EU saw its highest levels in nearly a decade.

Driven by steep taxes, restrictive regulations and insufficient enforcement, illicit tobacco has become a fully-fledged parallel market – undermining revenues, public health, and security. The year’s developments underscored an urgent need for balanced taxation, secure tax-stamp and traceability systems, viable legal alternatives, and coordinated enforcement.

The vaping boom

In 2025, vaping exposed the widening gap between regulation and control.

In the US, illicit disposable vapes dominated the market despite bans and Premarket Tobacco Product Application rules, often masquerading as legitimate products through QR codes and authentication labels – prompting belated but welcome enforcement escalations.

Elsewhere, governments turned toward structural solutions: the Philippines implemented vape excise stamps with immediate fiscal impact; the UK legislated a vape stamping system for 2026; and Canada demonstrated how a mature excise stamp regime, extended to vapes in 2022, can deliver durable enforcement and revenue outcomes.

The year’s lesson was clear: without visible legal markers and real-time verification, illicit markets will always move faster than policy.

Taking track and trace upstream

In 2025, supply chain control continued moving upstream – and in some cases, into the material itself.

Poland’s earlier success in regulating raw tobacco leaf was repeatedly cited as policymakers acknowledged that illicit trade often begins at the input stage.

At the same time, technologies such as SMX’s molecular marking proposed a more radical model: self-authenticating materials whose identity survives every transformation, from mine (in the case of precious metals) to finished product.

Together, these developments signalled a shift from tracking products after the fact to building authentication into the very substance of the supply chain.

Tobacco traceability under scrutiny

In 2025, tobacco track and trace advanced – but without convincing proof that it is delivering on its core promise. In the EU, a six-year-old system generating hundreds of billions of identifiers has yet to be formally evaluated, amid concerns over industry influence and rising illicit trade.

Globally, implementation of the WHO FCTC Protocol is progressing, but unevenly, with major gaps in data quality, enforcement and cross-border cooperation.

The lesson of the year was stark: track and trace systems do not succeed by existing – they succeed by being independent, enforced, analysed and evaluated.

Outlook for 2026

For the year to come, we look forward to seeing a sharper pivot from ‘systems that exist’ to ‘systems that prove impact’ – with stronger demands for independent governance, real-time verification, and outcome-based evaluation.

We also look forward to more jurisdictions coupling excise measures with visible, enforceable markers (notably the UK’s planned vape duty stamps); and more brand owners embedding authentication either into the product, the material, or the content itself, rather than relying on packaging codes that can be copied, reused, or ignored.

Tax Stamp & Authentication News would like to thank its readers, contributors and partners for their continued engagement, insight and support throughout 2025. It has been another demanding and fast-moving year for those working at the intersection of taxation, traceability, authentication and brand protection – and your willingness to share expertise, challenge assumptions and contribute to informed debate is what makes this publication possible.

On behalf of the entire editorial team, I wish you and your families a peaceful Christmas, a restful holiday period, and every success in the New Year.

We look forward to continuing the conversation in 2026.

Nicola Sudan

Editor