In South Korea, 127,000 traditional tobacco manufacturers may face unfair treatment due to the lagging regulation of synthetic nicotine, and compliance businesses are calling for synthetic nicotine to be regulated.
Controversy about over-regulation of synthetic Nicotine in Korea
According to V. AUM reported on February 16, as the South Korean National Assembly and the government continue to delay the relevant regulatory measures of the synthetic nicotine tobacco law, about 127,000 traditional tobacco retailers face unfair treatment.
According to industry sources, the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly failed to pass an amendment to include synthetic nicotine in the Tobacco Business Act, causing industry discontent. The Strategy and Finance Committee is planning to decide after further reviewing data from the Strategy and Finance Ministry on the easing of the distance limit between sellers, the extent of the increase in cigarette prices, and the extent of the impact on small businesses.
127,000 traditional tobacco retailers may be discriminated against
The vape Manufacturers Association has criticized Congress and the administration for not treating synthetic nicotine as tobacco, which it sees as condoning non-compliant merchants. The current direction of Congress and the administration is to consider relaxing the distance limit for sellers who do not obtain a sales license, which may turn into a violation of the principle. The Association further pointed out that regulatory delay will only benefit illegal operators and cause reverse discrimination of policy failure.
According to industry estimates, about 127,000 tobacco retailers currently follow the distance limits set by the law to conduct legal tobacco sales. Therefore, not regulating only the approximately 4,000 sellers of synthetic nicotine vapes is considered to discriminate against the more compliant small businesses.
An industry source pointed out that if the sellers of synthetic nicotine tobacco are exempted from the retailer designation requirement, the tobacco retailer designation system set up to prevent the disorderly circulation of tobacco will be useless. They argue that synthetic nicotine tobacco should be included in the tobacco category and subject to the same regulation.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance will reportedly submit materials related to synthetic nicotine requested to the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly on Thursday. After the submission, a panel meeting is expected to be held next week to discuss the relevant bill.
