Indian media on July 18 news shows that the Indian Ministry of Health recently issued a notice to 15 electronic cigarette e-commerce websites, asking them to stop e-cigarette sales and advertising, and requiring the operator of the website to respond within 36 hours after receiving the notice. Official information shows that four of the e-commerce sites have stopped operations, and the rest have not responded.
Sources said that if the above websites do not respond to the notice and do not comply with the relevant laws, the Ministry of Health will write to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asking it to directly shut down these websites and will take corresponding legal action against these websites.
According to Article 4 of the E-Cigarette Prohibition Law, information related to online advertising and the sale of illegal e-cigarettes is being hosted, displayed, published, disseminated and shared on your platform. In view of the above, pursuant to Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act) and pursuant to the Government notice dated 15 November 2021, the undersigned are hereby authorized to direct you to prohibit access to and/or delete any information identified in the attached documents without destroying evidence in any way.
According to the report, in addition to the 15 e-commerce websites that have been issued notices, the Ministry of Health is also looking at six other e-commerce websites. Meanwhile, the Indian Health Ministry is also closely monitoring the advertising and sale of e-cigarettes on social media and may issue notices to them soon.
According to public information, India’s Ban on e-Cigarettes Act took effect in 2019, completely banning the production, manufacturing, import, export, transportation, sale, distribution, storage and advertising of e-cigarettes. In May this year, the Indian Ministry of Health issued a notice requiring all producers, manufacturers, importers, exporters, distributors, advertisers and transporters, including Courier companies, social media sites and online shopping sites, directly or indirectly producing, purchasing or selling e-cigarettes practitioners to strictly comply with this law.