Period Care Competitors Join Forces To Fight The Tampon Tax

Eight period care brands have come together to form The Tampon Tax Back Coalition in an effort to end taxation on menstruation products.  

Beginning today, the group consisting of the brands August, Cora, Lola, The Honey Pot Company, Rael, Here We Flo, Saalt and Diva will reimburse the taxes paid on purchases of tampons, pads or menstrual cups in 21 states, including Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, that require the items be taxed. The states classify them as “luxury” or “non-essential” goods upon which sales tax is levied. Other health-related products—Rogaine and Viagra, for instance—are considered necessities and therefore exempt from taxation.

To get reimbursed, pictures of receipts should be submitted to the website www.tampontaxback.com within 10 days of purchase. Refunds are slated to be sent via Venmo or PayPal within 24 hours. The Tampon Tax Back Coalition’s site features a graphic illustrating the tax rate in the various states that sales tax on menstruation products. The rate ranges from 4.5% in South Dakota to 11.5% in Oklahoma and Alabama. 

A longtime advocate for the end of the tax on menstrual products otherwise known as the “tampon tax,” Nadya Okamoto, co-founder of August, is spearheading the initiative. In May, August launched the #TamponTaxBack campaign to reimburse individuals for taxes paid on purchases of the brand’s tampons and pads. Following the campaign’s success, Okamoto set out to widen the drive against the tampon tax to more brands. She contends that coalition building, especially in the private sector, holds a lot of weight for consumers. 

Okamoto praises Amy Fisher, who joined Lola as CEO last year, for promptly jumping on board the coalition. “That is no small thing because, historically, in any venture-backed space, competition is such an integral part of American capitalism,” she says. “Amy was the first other brand leader who was like, ‘We recognize that we could do it ourselves. We love this initiative. We also want to take a stand against the tampon tax.’” Lola has raised an estimated nearly $44 million in funding. 

Carinne Chambers-Saini, founder and CEO of Diva, believes it’s vital for period care companies to fight for a fairer, more inclusive future together. “Collaboration over competition is the path to progress, and by uniting our voices, we can make a meaningful impact by educating, and hopefully ending, the unjust tampon tax,” she says. “As menstruators, period care products are essential to our livelihood and should be treated as such just like all of the other medical necessities, which is the Tampon Tax Back Coalition’s goal.”

Brands in stigmatized categories like cannabis, sexual wellness and menstrual care often become de facto activists and educators as they confront legal barriers they deem to be harmful to their customers and their businesses, outdated practices by influential retailers like Target and Walmart (like the use of the term “feminine hygiene”), and censorship on digital platforms. For example, TikTok Shop recently launched in the United States to much fanfare, and many beauty brands have seen their business explode on the platform, but it currently prohibits the sale of period care products. 

Giovanna Alfieri, VP of marketing at The Honey Pot Company, views The Tampon Tax Back Coalition as an opportunity for awareness along with advocacy. “We can all agree that the incremental taxation is wildly inappropriate and unfair and also tied to geopolitical and cultural experiences by proxy of where the states are upholding this tax,” she says. “There’s the ability, with the total share of voice that we collectively have, we can actually potentially influence change, even if that change is just the sheer cognizance on the consumer level that this taxation exists. For us, it also felt like there was an immediate opportunity to bolster each of the brand’s independent missions while under the guise of this collective mission.”

Collectively, the brands in The Tampon Tax Back Coalition have retail distribution in tens of thousands of doors across North America and boast millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram. Still, by revenue, they pale in comparison to the size of conglomerate-controlled legacy brands like Procter & Gamble-owned Tampax, which holds about 20% market share in the tampon segment. According to the market research firm Zion Market Research, the global tampon market was valued at $12 billion in 2022 and is projected to hit $25.1 billion by the end of 2030 by advancing at a compound annual growth rate of 10% between 2023 and 2030. 

“August is a very baby brand,” says Okamoto, who also issues an “open invitation” to conglomerate-owned brands to join the coalition. “In the grand scheme of things, we are a blip in this very large industry.”