Shenzhen Cracks Down on Online E-Cigarette Sales, Including Vending Machines

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. 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 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. They took action against illegal advertising by Shenzhen e-cigarette companies, with 4 cases filed in 2019, resulting in fines totaling 450,000 RMB.

At the same time, the two departments worked together to accurately identify all 387 e-cigarette retail stores in the city, registering each one, and conducted rolling inspections of shops near schools, posting no-smoking signs. With the joint efforts of both departments, the rectification work has achieved phased results, effectively curbing many illegal practices in the e-cigarette industry and protecting minors from the harm of e-cigarettes.
 
In December 2019, the tobacco monopoly and market supervision departments jointly inspected merchants around primary and secondary schools for selling e-cigarettes to minors.

However, with the emergence of new media, new problems have arisen in the field of e-cigarette regulation. For example, some businesses use public accounts, mini-programs, and short videos to promote and sell e-cigarettes; some businesses deliberately downplay the dangers of e-cigarettes and engage in false advertising; offline e-cigarette retail stores are rapidly expanding, with some sales networks even reaching areas around primary and secondary schools and youth centers where minors are concentrated.

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 E-Cigarette Harm" issued on November 1, 2019. The goal of the action is to conduct special inspections to implement stricter regulatory measures and more severe governance methods, comprehensively clean up internet e-cigarette sales, and strengthen regulation of internet platforms to prevent disguised sales of e-cigarettes, effectively protecting 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 cooperation as a starting point, highlighting key areas and precise measures during law enforcement. The tobacco and market supervision departments at all levels 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 and regulation, focusing on establishing cooperation mechanisms in information monitoring, clue list sorting, and problem analysis and judgment, 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 comprehensive cleaning of internet e-cigarette information, thorough inspections of e-cigarette retail stores, and comprehensive checks of new channels such as e-cigarette vending machines.