Shenzhen’s Toughest Smoking Ban Yet Under Review: All Vaping Devices Included, Online Sales Prohibit

Blue Hole New Consumption reported on April 23 that the third session of the sixth Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee was held today, where the highly anticipated "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Smoking Control Regulations Amendment (Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the smoking ban) was submitted for review for the first time. This is the latest progress since the solicitation of opinions released on January 28.

This smoking control regulation, dubbed the strictest smoking ban in Shenzhen's history by the media, is indeed very strict. Blue Hole will provide you with an in-depth interpretation.

We found a document package on the Shenzhen government website, which contains three Word files detailing the amendments to the smoking ban and the amendments implemented since March 2014.

The biggest changes in the new smoking ban are twofold. First, it expands the smoking ban area, and second, it explicitly includes e-cigarettes in the prohibited range.

1. New smoking ban areas and strict penalties

The original smoking ban stipulated that smoking was prohibited in indoor workplaces, indoor public places, and public transportation. This can be understood as public areas.

The new smoking ban adds outdoor platforms of public transportation and areas where waiting queues are located, as well as within 5 meters outside subway entrances and exits, where smoking is prohibited.

The outdoor platform areas of public transportation include: buses, long-distance buses, taxis, passenger trains, subways, light rail, vessels, and civil aircraft, etc.

For the area where tobacco products are sold, the new smoking ban adds that tobacco products cannot be sold within 100 meters of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, youth palaces, and children's activity centers.

Regarding penalties for violations, the new smoking ban removes the step of urging by venue operators and instead allows the competent authority to impose penalties directly on smokers.
 
2. All categories of e-cigarettes are included in the ban

The biggest change in the new smoking ban is the addition of a ban on e-cigarettes.

The old smoking ban's Article 44 stated that smoking refers to holding a lit tobacco product.

The new smoking ban's Article 44 states:

Smoking refers to using e-cigarettes or holding lit tobacco products.

Interpretation: E-cigarettes are newly added as a category of smoking.

The definition of tobacco products in this regulation refers to products made wholly or partly from tobacco for smoking, sucking, chewing, or inhaling, as well as e-cigarettes.

Interpretation: The definition of tobacco products can be understood as traditional cigarettes, heated non-combustion tobacco sticks, and e-cigarettes, meaning that cigarettes, IQOS-like heated non-combustion products, and e-cigarettes all fall under the tobacco products defined by the regulation.

The regulation defines e-cigarettes as devices that vaporize and deliver a mixture of nicotine (or non-nicotine), propylene glycol, and other chemicals to the user's lungs.

Interpretation: This definition of e-cigarettes can be understood as oil-based vaporizing e-cigarettes, regardless of whether they contain nicotine, all fall under the prohibited range.

Overall interpretation means that smoking is prohibited in smoking areas, including traditional cigarettes, IQOS-like heated non-combustion e-cigarettes, and currently produced vaporizing e-cigarettes by domestic entrepreneurial brands.

In addition, regarding sales behavior, the highlighted clauses are worth noting. Combined with the regulation's definition of tobacco products, vending machines, the internet, and mobile communications will not be able to sell vaporizing e-cigarettes. Heated non-combustion e-cigarettes are already under the control of the National Tobacco Monopoly Bureau.
 
This is very noteworthy for companies aiming to launch e-cigarettes through offline retail channels. The clause clearly prohibits the sale of e-cigarettes through vending machines, but whether the sale through convenience stores, entertainment venues, etc., is legal cannot be concluded from the regulation at this time.

Article 16, which prohibits the online sale of tobacco products, is also worth noting. According to the smoking ban, tobacco products also include e-cigarettes. Considering that this is a local Shenzhen regulation, any internet company operating within Shenzhen should be included in the prohibition on selling e-cigarettes.
#p#page title#e#
This may mean that e-commerce platforms not based in Shenzhen, such as Taobao and JD, may not need to worry about online sales bans for now. However, once Hangzhou and Beijing also start to follow Shenzhen's lead, according to the principle of territoriality, the online sales of e-cigarettes may officially begin to be taken down.

3. Overview of smoking bans in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan

An article from the People's Daily Overseas Edition on April 21 introduced the smoking control situation in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, where tobacco control is very strict, and e-cigarettes have long been included in the control scope.

On October 10, 2018, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced a complete ban on e-cigarettes. The Special Administrative Region government formally submitted the "2019 Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Bill" to the Legislative Council on February 20, proposing to ban the import, manufacture, sale, distribution, and advertising of e-cigarettes or heated tobacco products, with a maximum fine of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars and six months imprisonment upon conviction.

Macau's new smoking control law has already included e-cigarettes in the ban on sales. The newly revised "Smoking Control Law" took effect on New Year's Day this year, stipulating that e-cigarettes cannot be sold, nor can advertising promotions be conducted; the smoking ban has been expanded to include a 10-meter radius from designated collective passenger vehicle parking areas (bus stops), and smoking e-cigarettes in prohibited areas is also illegal, punishable by 1500 Macau patacas.

Taiwan's smoking ban has been continuously strengthened. In October 2017, the authorities announced a complete ban on e-cigarettes, planning to amend the "Tobacco Harm Prevention Law" to comprehensively prohibit the manufacture, import, sale, and advertising of e-cigarettes, with violators facing fines of up to 250,000 New Taiwan dollars.

The People's Daily commented that the increasingly strict regulation of e-cigarettes is in line with the continuous support of public opinion and the vigorous rise of the anti-smoking movement. Whether traditional tobacco or e-cigarettes, strict regulation or even a complete ban is a major trend.

This may be an important signal that regulation of the e-cigarette industry is about to begin.