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About general retailers
General retailers are stores that sell vaping products but only in a limited range of flavours which include tobacco, menthol, mint (including spearmint and peppermint). These products are not the primary products they sell, and they are commonly stores like dairies, petrol stations, and supermarkets.
General retailers are different to specialist vape retailers, due to the limited range of vaping products they can sell. General retailers therefore do not need to apply for approval. Instead, they must submit a ‘notification’, to tell the Ministry of Health that they sell these products.
These notifications are known as 'Regulated Product Seller (RPS) notifications' and are done in Health Advisory and Regulatory Platform (HARP). Find out how to do this on our HARP user guide page.
Notification details for general retailers
Every person that sells vapes or other notifiable products must submit an RPS notification. In this case, the person relates to the legal entity – an individual (natural person) or a corporate (legal) entity.
The notification is for the legal entity eg, the company , not the store. This means that if a legal entity has more than one store, they still only need to submit one RPS notification. There is a fee of $80 plus GST, and any card processing fees, for each notification.
All notifications must be renewed each year on an annual basis. The Ministry of Health may also publish a list of businesses selling regulated products on the Ministry website.
How to notify you are selling vaping or other products
If you sell:
- vaping,
- smokeless tobacco, or
- herbal smoking products,
you must notify the Ministry of Health that you sell these notifiable products.
How to complete an RPS notification through HARP:
- Log into HARP. To log in, you must use your 'My Health Account'.
- Register for access:
- Select 'I want to notify the Director General of Health that I sell notifiable products at wholesaler and/or retail'.
- Allow for 5 working days for access to be granted.
- Complete the form:
- Select 'new submission'.
- Complete a 'Regulated Product Seller notification form'.
- You will be required to list the trading name and address of each store that you sell notifiable products from.
- Payment:
- Select 'my submissions' then 'my orders'.
- Select latest order (ODR) to submit and pay your fee.
- The annual fee is $80 plus GST.
- RPS code:
- This can be found under 'my licences'.
- You can check when your notification expires by clicking on your RPS code.
All RPS notifications must be renewed every year on or before the expiry date. You must submit a new notification form for renewal.
How to renew your Regulated Product Seller (RPS) notification
All RPS notifications must be renewed every year on or before the expiry date. You must submit a new notification form for renewal.
- Log into HARP. To log in, you must use your 'My Health Account'.
- Complete the form:
- Select 'new submission'.
- Complete a 'Regulated Product Seller notification form'.
- You will be required to list the trading name and address of each store that you sell notifiable products from.
- Payment:
- Select 'my submissions' then 'my orders',
- Select latest order (ODR) to submit and pay your fee.
- The annual fee is $80 plus GST.
- RPS code:
- This can be found under 'my licences'.
- You can check when your notification expires by clicking on your RPS code.
