State Tobacco Monopoly Administration: E-cigarette Industry Governance Enters a Rule-of-Law and Stan

Today (22nd), a reporter learned at a media briefing held by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration that China’s e-cigarette market has achieved a fundamental shift from a lack of oversight to governance in accordance with the law, from chaos and disorder to standardization and order, and from unchecked growth to strict management. The governance of the e-cigarette industry has entered a path of legalization and standardization.

According to reports, since e-cigarettes entered routine regulation on October 1, 2022, a total of 1,848 administrative penalty cases involving e-cigarettes have been handled nationwide. In cooperation with public security authorities, 398 criminal cases involving e-cigarettes have been investigated, 25 counterfeit production sites and 36 finished-goods warehouses have been dismantled, with a total case value of about 2.1 billion yuan and 1,323 people arrested. In particular, to protect the physical and mental health of minors, special enforcement actions were carried out against non-compliant flavored e-cigarettes such as “milk tea cups” and “cola cans,” resulting in 775 cases handled and 674 million yuan involved.

Yuan Chao, director of the E-cigarette Supervision and Management Leading Group Office of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, said that a preliminary regulatory framework for e-cigarettes has been established under the “1+2+N” system, with the Tobacco Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China and its implementing regulations as the foundation, the Administrative Measures for E-cigarettes and the national standard for e-cigarettes as the basis, and multiple policy documents as support, laying a legal and enforceable institutional foundation for e-cigarette regulation.

In addition, given the clear export-oriented nature of China’s e-cigarette industry, with most domestically produced e-cigarettes sold overseas, a relevant official from the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration said the authority will supervise relevant companies to fully implement regulatory policies, requiring that the packaging of exported e-cigarette products and domestic logistics activities comply with relevant regulations; bonded imports of nicotine and aerosols for e-cigarettes, as well as exported e-cigarette products, must all be promptly filed on the e-cigarette trading management platform.