Effective January 1, 2025, Coupang, a South Korean vape commerce company, has announced that it will stop selling vape oils on its open marketplace platform and will suspend new registrations and stocking of such products as of the 9th of this month. The move is intended to respond to growing pressure for control and to strengthen self-regulatory oversight.
Korean e-commerce company announced that it will stop selling e-liquid from 2025
According to N.News South Korean vape business firm Coupang reported on Sept. 4 that it will strengthen self-regulatory oversight of atomized vapes.
As of January 1, 2025, Coupang plans to stop operating its open marketplaces “Marketplace” and “Rocket Growth” for the vape oil category. Coupang will monitor the product category after the discontinuation of the service. If the product is found to be relevant, measures will be taken to stop the sale of the product.
First of all, Coupang will stop registering, reviewing, and warehousing new products in this product category as of the 9th of this month. However, sales will continue through the direct sourcing process.
Previously, all major e-commerce platforms have developed strategies to counteract the generation of smoke-t tar e-liquids. Recently, the number of Naver shopping platforms where nicotine-containing vape oils have been registered as smoky tar-free products has increased, and the related policy was strengthened again in January of this year. It is strictly prohibited to register products containing smoked tar, including generating smoked tar, on channels such as Naver Shopping, 11th Street, and Gmarket. However, vape oils similar to smoked tar or smokeless tar are still on sale.
Sources at Coupang said:
- “Vape oil products are strictly limited by law to be sold and stored online. However, pre-approval to prevent the circulation and storage of illegal goods is very difficult in the operation of the service. We are constantly supplementing our policies to ensure that legal and safe products are properly handled.”
Industry insiders believe that with the recent increase in calls for control, Coupang has decided to stop the highly regulated and difficult sale of vape oils in the open marketplace, and to retain only the sale of direct-sale goods. Unlike other tobacco products, vape oils can be sold online because the generation of tobacco oils such as smoke tar and nicotine are not considered tobacco products under the Tobacco Business Act in Korea. As a result, they are considered to be in a regulatory gray area, not subject to tax and not covered by warning graphic labels.
An industry insider said:
- “Since goods such as vape oils sold online have been outside the system, it constitutes a consensus to bring them into the system as early as possible.”
A source at the Ministry of Health and Welfare said:
- “If the definition of cigarettes is expanded, the regulation of vape oils such as synthetic smoking tar will be strengthened. To prevent youth smoking, the Ministry of Health and Welfare believes that self-regulatory programs both in terms of legislative reinforcement measures and platforms are positive.”
