From April 30, 2022, Hong Kong bans the import, promotion, manufacture, selling, or possessing for commercial purposes alternative smoking products, including electronic smoking products, heated tobacco products, and herbal cigarettes.
All inbound travelers are strictly not allowed to carry these products into Hong Kong.
The Prohibitions:
Import
- No person may import an alternative smoking product by way of parcels, cargoes, and bringing in by incoming travellers.
- Articles carried by persons in transit at the Hong Kong International Airport without passing through immigration control, air transshipment cargoes, or articles staying on an aircraft or in a vessel during transit, are exempt.
Manufacture
- No person may manufacture alternative smoking products.
Promotion and Giving
- No person may give an alternative smoking product to another person for promotion or advertisement.
- No person may give an alternative smoking product to another person in exchange for a token or as a prize in any event or competition.
- No person may give another person an object that is intended to be shown in public and contains —
(1) the name or trade name of a person associated with the marketing of alternative smoking products; or
(2) a trade mark or brand name of an alternative smoking product, or a pictorial device, or any part of the device, commonly associated with the trade mark or brand name.
Sale
- No person may sell an alternative smoking product, or sell any product that includes an alternative smoking product as gift.
Advertisement of alternative smoking products
- The provisions for the ban on tobacco advertisements also apply to advertisements of alternative smoking products.
Possession
- No person may possess alternative smoking products for commercial purposes, including manufacture, sale and giving them to other persons for purposes as specified in the Ordinance.
Ban on Use in Statutory No Smoking Areas
- No person may smoke or carry an activated alternative smoking product in a statutory no smoking area (NSA).
Those who fail to comply may receive a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and a fine of fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars.
Penalty
- Anyone who carries out any of the following acts in relation to an alternative smoking product commits an offence–
Acts | Penalty |
Import, manufacture, sale, possession for commercial purposes, or giving to another person for promotion | Summary conviction to a fine of HK$50,000 and imprisonment for 6 months |
Broadcast of advertisement | Summary conviction to a fine of HK$50,000 and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further penalty of HK$1,500 for each day during which the offence continues |
Using in NSA | Fixed penalty of HK$1,500 or summary conviction to a fine of HK$5,000 |
Earlier, Turkiye had also introduced a ban on e-cigarettes.
