Shenzhen Cleans Up Online E-Cigarette Sales, Targets Vending Machines
On July 21, the Shenzhen Municipal Market Supervision Administration and the Shenzhen Tobacco Monopoly Bureau jointly held a video conference to deploy a special inspection campaign for the vaping market. The meeting reviewed new progress in market cleanu
On July 21, the Shenzhen Market Supervision Administration and the Shenzhen Tobacco Monopoly Bureau held a video conference to deploy a special inspection action for the e-cigarette market.
The meeting summarized the new progress made in purifying the e-cigarette market since the joint regulatory actions of the market supervision and tobacco monopoly management departments began. In 2019, in response to a series of issues in Shenzhen's e-cigarette industry, the Shenzhen Market Supervision Administration and the Shenzhen Tobacco Monopoly Bureau promptly researched, acted quickly, and diligently performed their duties, maintaining a high-pressure regulatory stance against illegal activities in the city's e-cigarette industry.
Among them:
The Tobacco Monopoly Bureau interviewed 18 key e-cigarette brand companies in Shenzhen and urged relevant enterprises to remove 559 e-cigarette sales mini-programs, issued self-inspection withdrawal notices to 3,509 public accounts, and dealt with 2,288 related social groups.
The Market Supervision Administration conducted risk monitoring of e-cigarette manufacturing companies in Shenzhen, sampling 33 batches of e-cigarette products, including 7 batches of devices and 26 batches of e-liquids, and took action against Shenzhen e-cigarette companies for publishing illegal advertisements, with 4 cases filed and a total fine of 450,000 yuan in 2019.
At the same time, the two departments worked together to accurately identify all 387 e-cigarette retail stores in the city, registering them one by one, conducting rolling inspections of shops near schools, and posting no-smoking signs. With the joint efforts of both departments, the rectification work has achieved phased results, effectively curbing many illegal activities in the e-cigarette industry and protecting minors from the harm of e-cigarettes.
However, with the emergence of new media, some new problems have arisen in the regulation of e-cigarettes. For example, some businesses use public accounts, mini-programs, short videos, and other new media to promote and sell e-cigarettes; some businesses deliberately downplay the harms of e-cigarettes and engage in false advertising; and offline e-cigarette retail stores are rapidly expanding, with some sales networks even encroaching on areas concentrated with minors, such as around primary and secondary schools and youth activity centers.
This special action is a further implementation and deepening of the requirements of the National Tobacco Monopoly Bureau and the State Administration for Market Regulation's notice on further protecting minors from the harm of e-cigarettes issued on November 1, 2019. The goal of the action is to comprehensively clean up online e-cigarette sales through special inspections, strengthen supervision of internet platforms, prevent disguised sales of e-cigarettes, and effectively protect the physical and mental health of minors. The special action will take place from July 10, 2020, to September 10, 2020, and will be conducted in three phases.
At the meeting, Lai Yuancheng, a member of the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, emphasized the need to take proactive responsibility and strengthen regulatory synergy, focusing on key areas and precise measures during law enforcement. All levels of tobacco and market supervision departments in the city should deepen cooperation mechanisms to achieve long-term regulation.
Hong Jun, a member of the Market Supervision Administration and director of the Market Inspection Bureau, deployed the special action, emphasizing the need to balance economic development with law enforcement regulation, focusing on establishing cooperation mechanisms in information monitoring, clue listing, and problem analysis, achieving coordinated regulation, and using technology to achieve precise strikes against illegal clues. The meeting pointed out that the focus of this special action is to conduct a comprehensive cleanup of internet e-cigarette information, a comprehensive inspection of e-cigarette retail stores, and a comprehensive inspection of new channels such as e-cigarette vending machines.
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