The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) plans to ban the online selling of vape products amid rising number of violations by merchants and platforms.
Ruth Castelo, DTI undersecretary, at the weekly TV program Konsyumer atbp said Secretary Alfredo Pascual in a meeting on Friday proposed to suspend the sale of vape products online until sellers and platforms comply with the provisions of Republic Act 11900 by fixing and cleaning up their mechanisms so that minors will not have access to these products.
Initially, the DTI is looking at issuing a department order to implement the ban but Castelo said the agency is looking at the legalities before doing so.
“If that is not possible, the DTI will do everything it can (to stop the sale), if we need to go to the Supreme Court or Congress,” Castelo said.
Based on the monitoring operations of the DTI, some 679 physical stores have been monitored of which 247 were found to be in violation and were issued showcase orders or notices violation. A total of 149 have been shut down.
The DTI also monitored
37,808 online shops of which 1,649 are non-compliant.
SCOs or NOVs were issued to 201 merchants. Formal charges were filed against
109 sellers and one against e-commerce platform. Their cases are pending with the adjudication division of the DTI.
According to Castelo, most violations for both physical stores and online pertain to the prohibition of the use of flavor descriptors that attract minors.
Other provisions being enforced under the law are posting of signages that explicitly state the product cannot be sold to minors; testing areas in stores should have proper ventilations; checking of identity of buyers both online and in delivery and; prohibition to sell vape within a 100- meter distance of the center of activities in playgrounds in schools and amusement centers.
