Key Must-Read Points of the New Minors Protection Law: Fines Up to RMB 500,000

The newly revised Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors will come into effect on June 1, 2021. This is also the first time a national law has explicitly prohibited the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. In response, Gewu will provide a detailed explanation of the sections related to e-cigarettes in the revised law, hoping everyone will become thoroughly familiar with the relevant legal provisions and strictly observe the bottom line.
 
The detailed provisions are as follows:

First, the requirements for guardians of minors:
 
Parents now bear greater responsibility. Parents may not encourage children to smoke, and it is also unacceptable for adults to ignore the issue after discovering that a child is smoking.

Next are the requirements for merchants and smokers:
 
There are three key takeaways from Article 59

First, e-cigarette retail outlets may not be set up in the "vicinity" of schools. Exactly how close this "vicinity" is has not been clearly defined, but it can generally be understood as about 100 meters.

The 2015 Beijing Municipal Smoking Control Regulations set the distance at 100 meters. Tong Lihua, vice president of the China Association on Tobacco Control, hoped that the Law on the Protection of Minors would clearly prohibit the sale of cigarettes and e-cigarettes within 100 meters of schools. "When the Beijing regulations were being drafted, the distance under discussion was 200 meters, but someone from the tobacco authority proposed 50 meters, so the regulation ultimately set it at 100 meters. I believe that after this revision of the law, local legislatures will continue to pay attention to this issue."

Second, if it is difficult to determine whether the buyer is a minor, the seller must require identification. Selling through guesswork or pretending not to know will no longer work.

Third, smoking and drinking are prohibited in places where minors gather for activities. So next time you take out a cigarette, you had better check whether there are a lot of primary or secondary school students around.

Finally, the law explains the specific penalties
 
We can first see that there is actually no fine imposed on parents for violations; the main fines are aimed at merchants.

For violating the first paragraph of Article 59, namely selling tobacco products to minors, fines may be imposed depending on the severity of the circumstances, with a maximum fine of RMB 500,000.

For violating the second paragraph of Article 59, namely smoking in places where minors are concentrated, individuals may be fined up to RMB 500, while venue managers may be fined up to RMB 10,000.

Starting tomorrow, selling e-cigarettes to minors will no longer be merely a matter of moral awareness or industry self-discipline. It is now a matter written into national law, and there will finally be a clear legal basis for punishing violations.

Everyone must keep this law firmly in mind and implement it seriously.