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Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990

Packaging and labelling of regulated products - Packaging and labelling requirements

54: Restrictions on advertising, labelling, and sale of oral use products

You could also call this:

"Rules for selling and advertising things you put in your mouth"

Illustration for Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990

When you advertise or sell products that people use in their mouths, there are rules you must follow. You cannot say or suggest that a product is okay to chew or use in your mouth. You also cannot sell or give out products that are labelled as suitable for chewing or oral use, unless they have been approved by the Minister of Health under the Medicines Act 1981.

If you break these rules without a good reason, you can get in trouble and have to pay a fine. The amount of the fine depends on who you are, such as a manufacturer or someone else.

When the law talks about "oral use", it means using a product in your mouth and absorbing it through the skin inside your mouth.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS428638.

Topics:
Health and wellbeing > Public healthCrime and justice > Criminal law
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"Rules for buying cigarettes and tobacco in small packs"

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Part 3Packaging and labelling of regulated products
Packaging and labelling requirements

54Restrictions on advertising, labelling, and sale of oral use products

  1. A person must not publish a regulated product advertisement that directly or indirectly states or suggests that a regulated product is suitable for chewing or for any other oral use.

  2. A person must not import for sale, sell, pack, or distribute any regulated product labelled or otherwise described as suitable for chewing, or for any other oral use.

  3. A person must not import for sale, sell, pack, or distribute any regulated product suitable for chewing or for any other oral use unless the Minister of Health has given consent or provisional consent to the distribution of the product under the Medicines Act 1981.

  4. A person who, without reasonable excuse, contravenes subsection (1), (2), or (3) commits an offence and is liable,—

  5. in the case of a manufacturer, an importer, or a distributor, to a fine not exceeding $10,000; or
    1. in any other case, to a fine not exceeding $5,000.

      1. In this section, oral use, in relation to a product, means the absorption of the product primarily through the oral mucosa.

      Notes
      • Section 54: inserted, on , by section 27 of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act 2020 (2020 No 62).
      • Section 54(3): amended, on , by section 31 of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022 (2022 No 79).