Philippine Government Mandates Certification for E-cigarette Products by September

According to a report by Business Mirror on June 18, the Department of Trade and Industry in the Philippines has recently announced that retailers, distributors, wholesalers, and e-cigarette traders are allowed to sell any remaining uncertified e-cigarette products until September 7 of this year.

Leah Ann Arella, Director of the Standards Compliance Division of the Department of Trade and Industry - Bureau of Philippine Standards (DTI-BPS), stated in a weekend broadcast interview that this is to give businesses enough time to register their remaining inventory. After September 8, any e-cigarette products on the market that have not obtained certification will be confiscated.

Officials from BPS made it clear that e-cigarette products considered to be certified are those that have the PS license logo for manufacturers or the Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) logo for importers. Arellah further explained that

Products certified by BPS have a certification logo, while products licensed by PS have a PS logo. Each manufacturer has a unique license number. For importers, ICC certifies each batch of goods. We conduct testing on samples of their goods, and if they pass, we will award the ICC logo to each product.

According to Administrative Order (DAO) 24-02, a deadline has been set for the clearance sale of e-cigarette products.

All retailers must sell off remaining stocks of vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products within 90 days of this order taking effect.

The executive order also stipulates that, after this period, only aerosolized nicotine and non-nicotine products bearing the legal PS or ICC labels, as well as their devices and new tobacco products, can be sold or distributed in the local market. The market clearance process for unregistered or uncertified e-cigarette products is initially scheduled for January 2025.

However, according to Assistant Secretary Amanda Nograles of the DTI Consumer Protection Group, the final deadline will be September 7, 2024.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recently stated that starting from June 5th this year, all e-cigarette products must undergo DTI's registration process in order to enter the market.

There are two ways to obtain entry - either through a PS license from the original manufacturing plant or through an ICC at each importation.