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Non-compliance with the rules set out in legislation is an offence and failing to comply risks enforcement action.
Timeline of requirements
Amendments made to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 means that requirements have come into effect at different times. The following document provides a timeline of when some requirements became law.
General retailer notification requirements for vape products – RPS notification
General retailers (eg, supermarkets, dairies and petrol stations) of vaping, smokeless tobacco and herbal smoking products (collectively known as notifiable products) must notify the Ministry of Health that they sell these notifiable products. This notification must be completed in the Ministry's application platform, HARP and is known as a Regulated Product Seller (RPS) notification.
How to notify as a seller of products – RPS notification
- All businesses who sell notifiable products (vaping, smokeless tobacco, and herbal smoking products) must notify the Ministry they are selling these products.
- If a business sells from more than one location only:
- one notification is required
- all locations must be identified on the application.
- Notifications must be renewed every 12 months and a renotification must be submitted annually to ensure your information is kept up to date.
- There is a fee of $80 plus GST, plus any card processing fees, for each notification.
- The Ministry may publish a list of businesses selling regulated products on the Ministry of Health website.
Find out more about the application process on our HARP user guide page.
Prohibitions on free, discounted and bundled distribution or supply
Vaping products must not be distributed or supplied for free or at a reduced charge, except as part of a publicly funded smoking cessation programme.
Vaping products must not be packaged together with other types of products or distributed/supplied with other types of products at a single price (ie, as a bundle). They can be purchased at the same time as other products (as part of the same transaction) and then bagged or shipped together provided they are not sold as a package or sold together at a single price.
From 17 June 2025 specialist vape retailers will no longer be able to offer someone buying a vaping product a gift, cash rebate, or the right to participate in a contest, lottery or game, to encourage them to purchase, or reward them for purchasing.
Retailers cannot be offered a gift, cash rebate, or the right to participate in a contest, lottery or game by anyone in return for the:
- purchase or sale of vaping products
- advertising of vaping products in the retailer’s premises or on their website
- location of vaping products in the retailer’s premises or on their website.
This includes manufacturers, importers and distributors who sell vaping products to retailers.
Prohibition on display of certain trading names for general retailers
A general retailer must not display its name or trading name on the outside of its place of business (whether that is a physical store or a website) if the name:
- signifies that vaping products can be purchased
- is a trademark of a vaping product
- is the name of a manufacturer or importer of a vaping product.
This requirement only applies to general retailers, not specialist vape retailers.
Products need to be notified for sale in New Zealand
All vaping, herbal smoking and smokeless tobacco products (notifiable products) must be notified before they can be sold in retail stores in New Zealand. This means that manufacturers and importers need to tell the Ministry of Health about the notifiable products they intend to sell in New Zealand via the product notification process.
This means that retailers must only sell notifiable products that:
- have a current notification, or it has been less than 3 months since the notification expired and there are no current safety concerns with the product
- comply with all product safety requirements set in regulations
- have not been subject to a product recall.
Retailers do not need to notify the products they sell if they are already notified (eg, by the manufacturer or importer). However, retailers can only sell products that have been notified by the importer or manufacturer. A list of products which are currently notified can be found on the Notified Products Register.
Rules for products that are no longer notified
Notifiable products must not be sold in New Zealand if their notification has been withdrawn, suspended or cancelled. If a notification expires, the product notifier must stop selling it immediately. A retailer can continue to sell-through their existing stock for up to three months after the notification has expired, provided there are no safety concerns with the product.
The current status of all products can be found on the Notified Products Register.
A list of withdrawn products can be found on the Prohibited vaping products page.
Contents of vaping substances
Manufacturers and importers have a responsibility to ensure that the contents of vaping substances (liquids/juices) are safe and meet legal requirements.
The Ministry of Health tests a selection of vaping products available on the New Zealand market to check they are compliant with New Zealand legislation, and follows-up with notifiers where needed.
Products that do not meet legal requirements must be removed from the market. It is the notifier's responsibility to ensure their products meet all the legislative requirements before bringing them onto the market.
Product safety requirements for vaping products
| Requirement | All vaping devices |
|---|---|
| Child-safety mechanisms | All vaping products sold in New Zealand must have a child safety mechanism. |
| Flavours | All vaping products sold in New Zealand must comply with variant name restrictions. |
| Nicotine limits | Vaping substances must not exceed a nicotine limit of 20 mg/ml. Reusable vaping devices – A vaping substance that contains nicotine only in salt form and is intended for use in a reusable vaping device has a maximum nicotine limit of 28.5 mg/ml. |
| Labelling requirements | Single use products – Must comply with labelling requirements under clauses 1, 1A, and 24A, Schedule 5 of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Regulations 2021. Reusable products – Must comply with labelling requirements under clause 1, Schedule 5 of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Regulations 2021. |
Removable batteries
On 24 July 2025, the Government made the decision to revoke the requirement for all vaping devices to have a removable battery.
This means that since 1 September 2025, all vaping devices (including heated tobacco devices) are no longer required to have a battery that can be removed from the vaping device.
This decision does not affect the recent ban on disposable vaping devices.
For more information about the decision to remove this requirement, see the announcement on the Beehive website.
Child-safety mechanisms
A child safety mechanism means a mechanism or combination of mechanisms requiring at least two simultaneous, or five sequential operations to activate the device, and automatically turn off (deactivate) the device within 10 minutes of the last time it was used.
Batch numbers
All vaping devices must have a serial or batch number. This requirement applies to all devices, including single-use devices in instances where the device itself is the container, to ensure products can be traced in the event of safety concerns.
Manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers can only notify and sell vaping products if they have a compliant batch number.
Nicotine concentration
The concentration of nicotine in reusable vaping products containing nicotine only in salt form must not exceed 28.5mg/mL.
For all other vaping products, the concentration of nicotine must not exceed 20mg/mL.
Additionally, the regulations require that the nicotine concentration level on a vaping product must be displayed on a product label in mg/mL. Displaying only as a percentage is not permitted.
Vaping substances that do not meet the nicotine concentration limits cannot be notified or sold.
Labelling of nicotine content
Under the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Regulations (the Regulations) vaping substances that contain nicotine must display the nicotine concentration (sometimes referred to as ‘freebase nicotine’ concentration) in mg/mL on the packaging. If the product does not contain nicotine, then it should display ‘non-nicotine’ or ‘zero nicotine’.
Nicotine concentration requirements have been standardised to ensure consumers can easily compare nicotine content across different products.
Where nicotine is expressed in alternative ways, eg, salt concentration or in a percentage, the nicotine concentration in mg/mL must be the most prominent and obvious nicotine content label on the package.
Prohibition on cartoons and toys on packaging
Cartoons and toys cannot be present on vaping and smokeless tobacco products. Those products must not have any feature that depicts cartoons or toys.
Manufacturers and importers, distributors, and retailers must not sell vaping products or smokeless tobacco products that have any feature that depicts cartoons or toys.
The prohibition applies to the packaging of a vaping or smokeless tobacco product, and any inserts inside that packaging.
Test report requirements
The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 (the Act) requires some notifiable products (smokeless tobacco and herbal smoking products) specified in regulations to be tested annually.
The Act allows the Director-General, by written notice to require a manufacturer or an importer of a notifiable product to conduct tests of the product in addition to any annual tests required under section 69A of the Act.
The Act requires manufacturers and importers of notifiable products to prepare a report of all tests that they have carried out in each calendar year. These annual reports must be provided to the Ministry of Health by 31 January of the following year.
Oral nicotine products
There are many different oral nicotine products. How they are dealt with under the law depends on whether the nicotine component is tobacco-based or synthetic-based, and the intended use.
Prohibition on sale of products for chewing (or other oral use)
Regulated products must not be advertised, labelled or otherwise described as suitable for chewing or other similar oral use.
Any products where nicotine is absorbed primarily through the mouth by chewing or similar oral use must not be imported for sale, sold, packaged or distributed in New Zealand. This prohibition does not apply to products that have been given consent or provisional consent as a medicine under the Medicines Act 1981.
What is the legal status of oral tobacco nicotine products in NZ?
To find out more please see our Overview of oral nicotine products.
Contact details
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