Joyce Wen
The National Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Circular on Further Protection of Minors from Electronic Cigarettes (the “Circular”) on October 30, 2019. The Circular seeks to reaffirm the main contents of the Circular on Prohibiting the Sale of Electronic Cigarettes to Minors, which was jointly issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Tobacco Monopoly Administration in 2018, by restating the safety risks and health threats posed by electronic cigarettes, prohibiting market entities from selling electronic cigarettes to minors, and calling for discouraging and stopping sales of electronic cigarettes to minors.
To further strengthen the protection of minor’s physical and mental health and prevent minors from purchasing electronic cigarettes through the Internet and smoking them, the Circular urges enterprises that produce or sell electronic cigarettes to timely close down their Internet websites or customer terminals selling electronic cigarettes, as well as withdraw electronic cigarette advertisements published via the Internet, while e-commerce platforms should timely close down electronic cigarette stores and remove the electronic cigarette products from the market.
In addition, the Circular also requires all levels of tobacco monopoly administrative departments and the departments in charge of market regulation and administration to effectively strengthen the implementation and enforcement of the Circular, protect minors from the harm of electronic cigarettes, and, in particular, enhance the monitoring, discouragement and suppression of the promotion and sales of electronic cigarettes via the Internet, and sanction or notify the relevant departments of illegal acts as detected.