Interpretation III: Russia Bans Public Display of Vape Effective from June 1st

On April 11th, the Russian State Duma passed a proposal to modify certain legislative regulations with over 99% of the votes in favor. The proposal includes a ban on the online sale of e-cigarettes, as well as a ban on the public display of e-cigarettes in offline stores. This bill will be submitted for review to the Federal Assembly of Russia and awaits the President's signature.

What impact does the proposal have on online platforms and e-cigarette retailers? And what is the significance of doing so? These are hotly debated questions. Jason Liang, a market researcher at 2FIRSTS in Russia, provided a professional interpretation of the proposal.

In summary, there are two main changes to the regulations:

1. The public display of e-cigarette products for retailers will be prohibited.

2. The online sale of e-cigarettes will be banned.

This proposal will come into effect on June 1st, 2023.

Here is a detailed interpretation of the proposal:

Proposal content:

Retail sales of tobacco products, nicotine-containing products, and hookah are allowed in shops and exhibition halls. According to this regulation, a shop refers to a building or part of a building that is specially equipped for selling goods and providing services to customers. It is equipped with commercial, auxiliary, administrative, and living facilities, as well as buildings or parts of buildings used for receiving, storing, and preparing goods for sale. An exhibition hall refers to a building with a sales area that is designed for one or more workstations.

Change:

Add "and devices used for consuming nicotine-containing products" after "hookah".

2FIRSTS interpretation：

In Russia, most compliant tobacco product sales points are TABAK stores, which are regulated by the Russian Federation N15-FZ "On Protecting the Health of Citizens from the Consequences of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Tobacco, and Nicotine-containing Product Consumption" This amendment adds "devices used for consuming nicotine-containing products," which covers most of the e-cigarette devices on the market, and sales of such products in exhibition halls are also included in legal regulation.

Currently, electronic cigarette retailing in Russia is mostly done through vape shops, large supermarket chains, online stores, and street vendors, making regulation difficult and fluid. This legal amendment expands the management standards of cigarette retail venues to the electronic cigarette industry, establishing unified quantitative standards for electronic cigarettes, and making it easier for the government to manage.

Proposal content:

If there are no local stores or exhibition halls, it is allowed to conduct transactions involving tobacco products or products containing nicotine, as well as hookah, in other commercial facilities, or to conduct delivery transactions involving tobacco products or products containing nicotine, as well as hookah.

Change:

Add "and devices used for consuming nicotine-containing products" after "hookah".

2FIRSTS interpretation：

This clause mainly applies to the sales of tobacco products in non-state standard tobacco retail stores and exhibition halls, which allows the sale of tobacco products through other legally permitted methods, such as mobile transactions or freight-on-delivery. The new content added to the bill also includes devices for nicotine-containing e-cigarette products.

Proposal content：

It is prohibited to retail tobacco products, nicotine-containing products, and hookah in commercial venues, markets, exhibitions, through mobile sales, remote sales, vending machines, and other ways not regulated by clauses 1 and 2, unless within the scope of clause 2 for mobile sales.

Change: 

Add "and devices used for consuming nicotine-containing products" after "hookah".

2FIRSTS interpretation：

This amendment includes circulation and trade methods specified in clauses 1-2 and adds devices for nicotine-containing e-cigarette products. Furthermore, the bill specifically prohibits all unauthorized sales of nicotine products not regulated by clauses 1-2, including illegal online sales, illegal wholesale distribution, and other illegal sales activities.

The amendment is mainly aimed at restricting the current widespread illegal circulation of e-cigarettes, and including e-cigarette sales within the scope of the federal tobacco monitoring law, providing a legal basis for law enforcement agencies to crack down on the illegal e-cigarette market in the future.

Proposal content：

Retail and commercial institutions are prohibited from displaying tobacco products or products containing nicotine, except where specified in clause 5.

Change: 

Add "and devices used for consuming nicotine-containing products and hookah" after "nicotine-containing products".

2FIRSTS interpretation：

This clause is the sales requirements for tobacco products and nicotine-containing products in Russia's N15-FZ federal regulations, which prohibit the public display of related products. The amendment adds hookah and devices used for consuming nicotine-containing products, which means that the future sale of e-cigarettes and hookah will also be prohibited from public display.

Currently, the consumption of e-cigarettes in Russia is primarily among young people, and e-cigarette products with novel designs and bright colors are popular. The serious problem of Russian teenagers smoking e-cigarettes, as well as the large-scale illegal e-cigarette market in Russia with many non-compliant products containing excessive additives, poses a great risk to consumers' health.

Since February of this year, several incidents of youth deaths or injuries from e-cigarette use have occurred in Russia, which has sparked public outrage and gained strong support from most lawmakers for this proposal.

Proposal content：

When retailing tobacco products, nicotine-containing products, and hookah, sellers should list the products alphabetically in black font on a white background in the sales area of commercial venues and specify the product's price without using any images or graphics, according to the provisions of the Russian Federation Consumer Protection Law. After the customer meets the requirements of Article 20 of this federal law and understands the list of tobacco products, nicotine-containing products, and hookah sold, the seller can show the tobacco products, nicotine-containing products, and hookah to the customer in the sales area of the commercial venue upon the customer's request.

Change: 

Add "and devices used for consuming nicotine-containing products" after "hookah" 

2FIRSTS interpretation：

This clause is related to the sales requirements for tobacco products and nicotine-containing products in Russia, specifically how to sell products that cannot be publicly displayed. According to the amendment, products for consuming nicotine-containing products are also added to the list. This is similar to the closed sales methods used for tobacco products, in which the display of e-cigarette products with a young appearance is prohibited to prevent attracting young people to purchase them.

Also read: 

Russia Passes New Bill Banning All Vape Flavors

Russian PM Mishustin Considers Ban on E-cigarettes

Interpretation: Russian Flavor Ban to Cover All E-liquids 

Interpretation II: New Price Standard Introduced

Timeline of Russian Vape Law Development 

Russian Vape Flavor Limit Effective from Sept 1 - Full Law Translated