The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Friday temporarily banned the online sale of all heated tobacco products (HTP) or vape, including devices and systems.

“It is a temporary suspension until the e-marketplaces are able to convince us of their compliance with their obligations under Republic Act 11900 [and] other laws and related issuances,” DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual said in a media briefing in Makati City.

He said the main motivation for the order is to prevent the sale of vape products to minors and ensure vape sellers are compliant with the safety of the products, particularly the device's testing done by the Bureau of Philippine Standards.

“I just came from a meeting with importers, manufacturers, retailers, and distributors of vape products. [W]e talked about their experiences and problems selling vape products. It's a growing industry; they confirmed it to me when I asked. [In terms of] physical selling, they're able to comply with the requirement that no sale of vapor products should be made to minors. [But] online, up to now, we're not convinced that the e-marketplaces are able to really screen the buyers of these products,” Pascual added.

The suspension order is effective immediately.

 

Voluntary moratorium

Pascual said some sellers have gone on a voluntary moratorium to work on a system assuring the DTI that they're able to screen minors from buying vape products. 

“As you may know, in some other countries, the sale of vape products online is fully prohibited. And one good example is Singapore, and most of the regional offices of the large e-commerce platforms here, like Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok, are all based in Singapore, so they understand,” he said.

Besides e-commerce platforms, the trade chief said vapes are also sold on other websites, such as Facebook Market Place.

The selling ban is indefinite.

Two requirements

Trade Assistant Secretary Amanda Nograles of the DTI Consumer Protection Group said that under the obligation of e-marketplaces, the sale of unregulated products should be prohibited unless sellers comply with two requirements.

“The first requirement is that they are able to submit their registrations, licenses, and permits. So, in our order, we asked them to submit to us a copy of the licenses, permits, and BIR registrations of the online merchants in their marketplace,” she said.

“Second, it is necessary that before allowing regulated products like vape to be sold in the e-marketplace, they must have a contract. Those who operate the e-marketplace have a contract as well as the online merchant regarding the selling restrictions, the conditions, and everything under the law when it comes to selling vape.” 

Nograles said DTI determined based on their monitoring and enforcement that one of the laws vape sellers often violate is age-gating, which refers to the sale of the product to children under 18 years old.

The Department of Health earlier warned the public against the use of vapes, as this is "dangerous to health" and "addicting." 

Last May, the Philippines recorded the first vape-related death after a 22-year-old male died of heart attack due to a severe lung injury linked to his daily vape use for two years.