State Tobacco Monopoly Administration Launches Special Control Action to Protect Minors from E-Cigarettes

Office of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration
On the Protection of Minors from Electronic Cigarettes
Notice on Specialized Governance

National Tobacco Office General [2024] No. 67

Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Bureaus:

In order to conscientiously implement the rectification requirements of the feedback from the central inspection, investigate and deal with illegal acts of selling e-cigarettes to minors in accordance with the law, resolutely prevent the invasion of e-cigarettes into primary and secondary school campuses, and make every effort to protect the physical and mental health of minors, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration has decided to organize and carry out a special treatment for the protection of minors from being infringed upon by e-cigarettes from May 6th. The relevant matters are notified as follows:

I. General requirements

Taking Xi Jinping's thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era as its guide, thoroughly implementing the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the 2nd Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, implementing the relevant requirements of the Central Committee's inspection, targeting the problem of the invasion of children's e-cigarettes into primary and middle school campuses, further intensifying efforts to publicize and educate minors about the laws, cleaning up sales outlets and vending equipment around campuses, and checking the implementation of the requirements for the setting up of warning banners and the verification of identification by retailers. It investigated and dealt with illegal sales of e-cigarettes to minors, and created a good environment to guard the healthy growth of minors.

II. Main tasks

(a) Strengthening publicity and guidance. Tobacco Monopoly Bureaus around the world should actively join hands with market supervision, education and other departments to carry out e-cigarettes legal publicity "into the school" activities, take various measures to explain to primary and secondary school students the hazards of smoking e-cigarettes, popularize the "e-cigarettes on the head" and other new types of drug prevention knowledge to prevent students from becoming addicted to cigarette card games and enhance the ability of minors to protect themselves and resist temptation. To prevent students from becoming addicted to cigarette games, and to enhance minors' awareness of self-protection and their ability to resist temptation. To strengthen the legal awareness of cigarette outlets, requiring retailers to comply with the requirements for warning signs and identity verification, and to consciously and actively refuse minors' requests to purchase e-cigarettes. It is necessary to strengthen the exposure of typical cases, carry out a variety of channels and forms of publicity, clarify the tobacco sector's firm attitude to strictly control e-cigarettes in accordance with the law, and make every effort to protect the physical and mental health of minors, so as to create a general consensus among the whole society on the protection of minors from the infringement of e-cigarettes.

(ii) Strict cleanup and remediation. Tobacco monopoly bureaus around the country should quickly clean up e-cigarette sales outlets and vending devices around campuses, establish working accounts, conduct comprehensive and systematic investigations, avoid regulatory loopholes, and effectively purify the environment around campuses. We will work with market supervision departments to discourage the sale of cigarette packs and cards to minors in convenience stores, supermarkets, and sporting goods stores around campuses. It is necessary to strengthen the collection and disposal of information on e-cigarettes on the Internet, increase efforts to dispose of clues on e-commerce, social networking, and short-video platforms that induce minors to buy and smoke e-cigarettes, and continue to clean up online information on false propaganda and illegal sales of e-cigarettes. Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shenzhen and other places should emphasize the responsibility of local supervision, take administrative interviews, send supervision letters and other ways to require local Internet enterprises to independently clean up information on e-cigarettes, cigarette cards and other commodities, and shut down illegal sales stores.

(iii) Strict investigation and crackdown. Local tobacco monopolies shall strengthen market enforcement inspections, focusing on compliance with laws, regulations and regulatory policies by e-cigarette operators, and impose administrative penalties in accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors on market operators selling e-cigarettes to minors, so as to educate and deter operators from abiding by the law and complying with the law. We will maintain a high-pressure and severe crackdown on the illegal production of e-cigarettes, crack down on the production and sale of "milk tea cups", "cola cans" and other non-standard and counterfeit e-cigarettes, and guard against new drug crimes such as the illegal addition of prohibited ingredients to the production and sale of "uptake e-cigarettes", and prevent the illegal addition of prohibited ingredients to the production and sale of "e-cigarettes". "We will thoroughly investigate the sources of production, dismantle production and sales networks, and severely punish criminals, so as to curb the momentum of illegal and criminal sales of e-cigarettes to minors from the source, and effectively safeguard the physical and mental health of minors. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan and other places should strengthen the clue mapping of cigarette cards counterfeiting the registered trademark of cigarettes, trace the production source of illegal use of the registered trademark of cigarettes in the production and sale of cigarette cards, and pursue legal responsibility in accordance with the law.

III. Organization of work

The special treatment will last for two months, starting on May 6th and ending on July 6th. Local tobacco monopoly bureaus should focus on the organic integration of special governance and daily work, and promote the special rectification of the problem of online cigarette sales and special inspections to regulate the order of the e-cigarette market as a whole, so as to carry out education and awareness-raising, clean-up and rectification, and investigations and crackdowns throughout the entire process of special governance.

IV. Work requirements

(i) Raising the political stance. E-cigarette invasion of primary and secondary school campuses is related to the future of the motherland and the growth of minors. Local tobacco monopolies should fully understand the urgency and importance of the special treatment, strengthen the sense of the overall situation and sense of responsibility, strengthen organizational leadership, refine the work arrangements, perform their duties in accordance with the law, and promote the effectiveness of the special treatment.

(ii) Strengthen comprehensive governance. Local tobacco monopolies should seriously summarize the experience of e-cigarette regulation in recent years, strengthen the synergy and cooperation with market supervision, public security and other departments in information sharing, joint law enforcement, case investigation, etc., and do a good job in case transfer and the convergence of criminal justice, so as to promote the formation of a pattern of common governance for the protection of minors from e-cigarette infringement.

(iii) Focus on summarization. Local tobacco monopoly bureaus should establish special control work accounts, strengthen the archiving and organization of materials, focus on collecting typical cases, summarize advanced law enforcement experience, actively study countermeasures for new situations and new problems in the process of special control, promote the establishment of a sound long-term regulatory mechanism, comprehensively enhance the level of e-cigarette regulatory capacity, and make every effort to protect the physical and mental health of minors.

Office of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration

April 26, 2024

(Active Public)