Draconian penalties for e-cigarette sales

Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday that e-cigarettes constituted a banned drug, according to a story on Focus Taiwan News Channel.

There are no regulations under which individuals could be punished for owning or using electronic cigarettes, but importers, producers and sellers could face fines, though none of them have been fined so far.

The FDA deputy director-general Chiang Yu-mei was quoted as saying that using e-cigarettes in public places was not regulated under the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act.

She suggested, however, that while smokers of e-cigarettes were not breaking the law, members of the public could report them via a hotline to assist the government in tracking down the source of these devices.

Under the current regulations, manufacturers or importers of e-cigarettes containing nicotine face a maximum fine of TWD$10 million and a prison sentence of up to 10 years, while vendors face a maximum fine of TWD$5 million and up to seven years in jail for providing drugs for which regulatory approval has not been obtained.

Even importing or selling nicotine-free electronic cigarettes renders a person liable to fines of TWD$10,000–TWD$50,000 under provisions of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act that bans objects shaped like cigarettes.