The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 strikes a balance between ensuring vaping products are available for smokers who want to switch to a less harmful alternative and ensuring these products aren’t marketed or sold to young people.
The provisions of the Act are being phased in over a 15-month period. This means some provisions came into force straight away, and others take effect further down the track.
Regulations are needed to implement some parts of the Act. A seven-week public consultation inviting feedback on the proposed regulations was held 26 January – 15 March 2021. The new regulations 2021 are now available.
Read more about the changes in the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990.
Timeline
From 1 January 2023:
- retailers, distributors, New Zealand manufacturers and importers and exporters of notifiable products must keep accurate records relating to all their notifiable products
- retailers – retail premises specified in SVR applications must be appropriate.
From 31 January 2023:
- specialist vape retailers must have submitted Annual Returns by 31 January 2023 for 2022
- New Zealand manufacturers and importers of notifiable products must have submitted annual reports (if required) and returns by 31 January for 2022.
TBC 2023 (after regulations come into force):
- retailers of notifiable products can notify that they sell notifiable products at retail
- distributors of notifiable products can notify that they sell notifiable products at wholesale.
From 1 October 2023 (9 months after Act commences):
- retailers of notifiable products must have notified that they sell notifiable products at retail
- distributors of notifiable products must have notified that they sell notifiable products at wholesale
- New Zealand manufacturers and importers of notifiable products must have notified all herbal smoking products (not just vaping and smokeless tobacco products).
From 31 January 2024:
- retailers, Specialist Vape Retailers, NZ manufacturers and importers of notifiable products must have submitted Annual Returns by 31 January 2024 for 2023.
Vaping regulation submissions
During a seven-week public consultation (26 January – 15 March 2021), we heard from more than 2500 people across Aotearoa about proposed vaping regulations, including vapers and smokers, health sector organisations, the general public, the vaping and tobacco industry, and retailers. Focus groups run by Hāpai te Hauora and Tala Pasifika resulted in 919 submissions from Māori and Pacific peoples.
The submissions have now been published.
- Index of SERPA Regulations submissions 2021 (DOC, 14.9 KB)
- SERPA Regs 2021_zip1 (ZIP folder, 3.8 MB)
- SERPA Regs 2021_zip2 (ZIP folder, 2.9 MB)
- SERPA Regs 2021_zip3 (ZIP folder, 11.9 MB)
- SERPA Regs 2021_zip4 (ZIP folder, 4.5 MB)
- SERPA Regs 2021_zip5 (ZIP folder, 4.9 MB)
- SERPA Regs 2021_zip6 (ZIP folder, 4.6 MB)
- SERPA Regs 2021_zip7 (ZIP folder, 5.5 MB)