Online retailers of e-cigarettes subject to heavy fines – report

Although the sale of e-cigarettes in Poland is booming, the recent EU directive banning distance sales of the vaping products applies to Polish retailers and those caught selling them either online or cross-border can be fined up to PLN 200,000, according to a report on Tuesday in Gazeta Prawna. The tobacco directive in force in Poland since September prohibits the sale to consumers of e-cigarettes and accessories via the internet. The ban on distance delivery of e-cigarettes from or to Poland is fully in effect, the Ministry of Health warned, regardless of where retailers have registered the holding company. The report mentioned that some businesses that sell e-cigarettes illegally try to get around the law by changing the name of their products, for example, from “e-cigarette” to “vaporizer.” Furthermore, as lawyer Susan Malina told Prawna, the penal code stipulates that offenders can be charged according to either the place where the perpetrator sends the goods and/or the location in which he/she receives them. Many Polish vaping advocates are concerned that the quick transposition into law of the directive by the PiS government is damaging to those employed in the industry, as well as to people who are trying to quit smoking regular cigarettes. In a petition to the Polish president, Vapers appealed to the government to rescind the ban, which, the organization claims, has been imposed inter-alia; the government has not yet responded to this appeal, wrote Mirosław Dworniczak of the Nicotine Science and Policy Association on the group’s website. The legal sale of e-cigarettes in Poland is also big business – it is expected to grow this year to by over 30 percent, to $ 572 million.