Confusion in classifying new tobacco products
At the seminar, representatives of the competent authorities commented that the diversity of e-commerce, while there are no guiding documents, causes many difficulties in classification and implementation.
For cigarettes, the classification between circulating products and floating goods on the market is through the authentication of labels, so as long as the goods do not have labels or use fake labels, they are all illegal and will be handled based on current regulations.
Meanwhile, with the new cigarettes after the ban comes into effect, the problem of preventing products from being present on the market and combating smuggling is still a major obstacle as the authorities themselves admitted to lacking information to distinguish between e-commerce products and conventional goods.
Mr. Le Dai Hai - Deputy Head of the Department of Civil and Economic Law, Ministry of Justice, spoke about practical experience when surveying with relevant agencies and agencies, saying: The Social Committee and the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education have previously surveyed a school, in addition to selling food and stationery to students, the seller also sells many types of electronic cigarette products in the form of milk cartons with fruit smell and no brand; when tested, there is no taste of tobacco.
The concept of new tobacco products has not been clearly defined when the current Law on Tobacco Harm Prevention (PCTHTL) along with related legal documents mainly focus on traditional cigarettes. Currently, the ban on production and business, import, storage, transportation, and use of electronic cigarettes and electronic cigarettes is effective from January 1, 2025, but if it only stops at Resolution 173 mentioned above, the enforcement agency will have extremely difficulty in implementing it, Mr. Le Dai Hai acknowledged.
Clearly separate the concept of new types of cigarettes
The latest official dispatch of the Ministry of Justice dated March 4, 2025 is the appraisal report No. 68 (68/BCTD-BTP) on the Draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 117/2020/ND-CP dated September 28, 2020 of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in the health sector, amended and supplemented by Decree No. 124/2021/ND-CP dated December 28, 2021 of the Government.
The assessment report of the Ministry of Justice stated that EIA and EIA are independent concepts with differences in structure, mechanism of operation, composition, harm and users. Therefore, combining the concept will lead to determining the two types of cigarettes mentioned above as one, and the same (perception) on the level of harm of each product. This will make it difficult to develop harm prevention measures, or choose the appropriate form of punishment and penalty level.
Therefore, the Ministry of Justice proposes to add the definitions of "told market economy" and "tollNN" to the Law on PCTHTL and Decree 67 2013 to ensure legal synchronization and comprehensive management.
At the same time, the drafting agency needs to report to the Government on different opinions and forecast the consequences before issuing additional penalty regulations.
At the workshop, talking about the differences of these products, Mr. Le Dai Hai further explained: TLNN is a type of cigarette produced in packaging, including cigarettes. But instead of users using lighters to burn like traditional cigarettes, they just need to insert this TLNN cigarette into an electronic device to heat the product up, form steam and smoke. After being completely smoked, this electronic cigarette is still intact, not burning like traditional cigarettes.
Meanwhile, e-commerce is a product containing a solution, using another type of electronic device to steam this solution and inhale it.
Therefore, the accurate definition of TLLN and TLDT not only provides a correct view of the nature of the product, but also allows the development of effective management regulations for implementation.
