China to ban on-line "e-cig" sales.

[DaveJ]

I first saw this yesterday. I paused to see what might transpire.

Today I saw further reporting of it so have decided to make mention here.

The original item I saw:

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-01/china-bans-online-sales-of-e-cigarettes-to-protect-adolescents

Partial quote:

China has banned online sales of e-cigarettes in the latest blow for the nascent vaping industry, which has come under intensifying scrutiny around the globe.

All websites and apps selling e-cigarettes should be shut down and all online marketing campaigns halted, according to a statement by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and State Administration for Market Regulation on Friday. The measures are aimed at protecting adolescents from vaping, it said.

The directive also ordered online shopping platforms to remove e-cigarette products from their sites. China’s e-cigarette market size rose from $451 million in 2016 to $718 million in 2018, according to estimates from L.E.K. Consulting, as lack of specific regulations on e-cigarettes allowed for their proliferation.

Also reported by the NNA in their newsletter here: vapers.org.uk/vaping-digest-november-1st/

Picked up by Reuters: here
Note within the following quote from the above Reuters report the words "temporary":

In order to "further strengthen the protection of the physical and mental health of minors," the regulator "urges e-cigarette producers, retailers, or individual sellers to temporarily close online sales websites or channels" and "urges e-commerce platform to temporarily close e-cigarette shops," the regulator stated.

From the Fasttech forums:
www.fasttech.com/forums/shipping/t/3034292/china-bans-online-sales-of-e-cigarettes


++++

Several immediate questions come to my mind - aside from the "Oh! F***!" response many of us might have.

* Is this a ban only for "domestic" sales within China or for all sales including their vast overseas supply businesses? Think Health Cabin, Fasttech, 3FVape, etc.....
* Is this just whole kits - or does it cover all "e-cig" related parts, spares, tanks, mods, wick, wire, etc.
* Does this include e-cig related liquids? Remember, a good portion of the world's vaping nic is produced and supplied from within Asia.

Sure, other places make "e-cig parts". But huge volumes of general purpose "mass market" vaper products are manufactured and supplied from China.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

[DaveJ]

Addition to the above:

from here: FT Forum thread

One of the FT staff Anniepan says: "Hello wetclay and other valued customers,

It will not affect our website. Please don't worry. "

Hopefully it really is that simple.

[joeten]

I saw a post on FB from @jieyan Qiu ( Foclecig )which basically said it was the China market it was aimed at.

[joeten]

Okay found the post.

Jieyan Qiu Re-edit:Hey guys, thanks for your attention. Already received some PMs for such question. Guess I have to share my thought on this. I have read the news. First, we don’t sell to domestic, and our store doesn’t open to Chinese users, we blocked Chinese IP address and Chinese browser to prevent our supplier visit our store before(because they have restriction on retail price, like vapefly). This policy works for online stores that sold to domestic market. Second, the new was released by China Tobacco, which is hilarious! And what’s more funny is that, rumor said that the China Tobacco started to produce ecig. To forbid online sales for ecig helps them to expand their business on their own. Third, look at one of greatest online ecig stores, aliexpress (belongs to alibaba?, it is Chinese store, there are still many ecig stores online, but only for foreign countries

[DaveJ]

Seems I may have jumped alittle too quickly with "the sky is falling down" story.

In my defense, I've seen the strong "anti" movement here in Oz (lookup Greg Hunt's latest on "e-cigs" - he is our National Health Minister), I've seen the various US states declare "Vaping = bad" and this seemed to be following in those lines.

As joeten says there are public comments from several Chinese vendors saying this will not affect export sales from China. And a quick lookie around this morning shows several Chinese suppliers I know of still have functioning web sites.

Whilst this isn't good news for domestic Chinese folk, at least it doesn't seem to suggest Chinese exports are affected. Well, at least not yet.

[Perpetua]

Little did Hon Lik foresee the global madness and hysteria that would ensue when he patented his invention back in 2003 . . . . a product designed with the sole intention of literally offering a life line to smokers around the world who still wanted their nicotine ' fix ' minus the known health issues and cause of death for millions from smoking tobacco.

The tobacco giants strike again - and if anyone believes this move is to ' protect ' Chinese youngsters from taking up the vaping habit, then they're either incredibly naive or stupid. It protects the home tobacco industry, no one else.

www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/post/20633/china-smokers-turn-to-vaping

[DaveJ]

Nov 3, 2019 4:49:34 GMT Perpetua said:

The tobacco giants strike again - and if anyone believes this move is to ' protect ' Chinese youngsters from taking up the vaping habit, then they're either incredibly naive or stupid. It protects the home tobacco industry, no one else.

www.thatsmags.com/shanghai/post/20633/china-smokers-turn-to-vaping

I'm under no illusions Perpetua. 

Whilst this may have been a "false alarm" (for those of us outside of China), I'm sure it further demonstrates intentions - both in China and elsewhere.

I'm now thinking my current, err, "accumulations" may need supplementing.

* Any excuse to buy stuff!

[buggritt]

Trouble is, people are incredibly stupid. And quite proud of it.

[Edge]

In China smoking is still the norm.
The tobacco companies are state owned, so very protected.
Every man and his dog smokes, huge taxes raised.
Anything that may reduce the taxes is shut down quickly.
Nothing to do with saving the children.
Surprised it took this long for a control/ban/restriction on e-cigs within China.
The Chinese government will not stop exports of e-cigs due to tax and export figures.
A funny old world, taxes raised are more important that lives saved.

[buggritt]

It's not too different in any country. Our own NHS is run to prevent crippling (expensive) illness. Not to save lives. Stop smoking, take statins, alendronic acid for the elderly. The last two can cause horrendous problems for many. A senior consultant, friend of mine, told me that for the current purposes of the NHS, death is a good result. I go on a "lads" trip every year somewhere interesting, then we just camp in bars. Had a count up at the airport, I was the only one who hadn't at least three types of medication on me.
The Chinese who vape will find a way to continue quite easily

[watsy]

Nov 2, 2019 6:44:15 GMT DaveJ said:

Addition to the above:

from here: FT Forum thread

One of the FT staff Anniepan says: "Hello wetclay and other valued customers,

It will not affect our website. Please don't worry. "

Hopefully it really is that simple.

   Fasttech, Go to RDA's you'll see 16 pages of the 16, 3 have RDA's for sale the others are showing either, out of stock, or discontinued ? Tells a totally different story in my opinion.   

[buggritt]

Hope your not on a jury. There are over 300 RTA/RDA for sale. And page after page of RDA. What have they got to gain by lying?

[watsy]

Nov 7, 2019 13:40:46 GMT buggritt said:

Hope your not on a jury. There are over 300 RTA/RDA for sale. And page after page of RDA. What have they got to gain by lying?

Try this link, yes 340 RDA'S did you any pages after page 1  ?
www.fasttech.com/category/3041/search/-/p/1?sort=r&keywords=RDA

[bioxx]

Nov 8, 2019 10:16:27 GMT watsy said:

Nov 7, 2019 13:40:46 GMT buggritt said:

Hope your not on a jury. There are over 300 RTA/RDA for sale. And page after page of RDA. What have they got to gain by lying?

Try this link, yes 340 RDA'S did you any pages after page 1  ?
www.fasttech.com/category/3041/search/-/p/1?sort=r&keywords=RDA

I think that’s always been a rather annoying FastTech thing. They seem to order one load and when it’s gone you get the ‘discontinued’ nonsense. I haven’t bought anything from them in a long time since I hardly ever buy anything that’s fresh on the market. By the time I want it FastTech doesn’t have it anymore already.

[jtc]

Whatever the outcome here it's all a bit crappy hearing these bad news stories from around the world. It just reinforces how corrupt everything is imo. Absolute nonsense and disgusting. I feel so lucky to have been vaping for so long and nothing can stop me now but for others it's just another part of being controlled.
Disgusting!