Russian Official Supports Proposed Ban on Online E-cig Shops

On May 24th, Vladislav Zaslavsky, the director of the Department of Digital Tags and Product Sales Legalization in the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, said that the department will support the Ministry of Agriculture's bill to ban retail websites for tobacco products.

In February 2023, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture proposed a bill that would allow websites selling e-cigarettes and nicotine-containing products to be blocked without a court order.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade explained that they support blocking individual web pages rather than completely blocking websites selling related products.

"According to our information, the Ministry of Agriculture is finalizing a bill that was previously drafted, and we are waiting for its approval," Zaslavsky said.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade also supports the proposal to redistribute part of the excise tax on tobacco products from the federal budget to regional budgets. Zaslavsky added: "This measure has proven itself in a good way: it provides incentives for the subjects to be more active in the retail market. At the same time, it is necessary to give appropriate supervisory authority to each region."

In June 2022, representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party submitted a bill to the State Duma suggesting a preliminary restriction on access to websites containing tobacco products and mixed tobacco. However, due to the lack of relevant opinions from the Russian government, the bill was returned by the State Duma.

Previously, Russia has adopted similar measures to manage the liquor industry and achieved good results.