Retail permit application for tobacco products and nicotine liquids, and wholesale notification

To retail tobacco products and nicotine-containing liquids, you must apply for a licence from the municipality in which the retail site is located. The retail sales licence only concerns the place of sales for which it was applied.

For wholesale of tobacco products and nicotine-containing liquids, you must submit a notification to the municipality in which the wholesale site is located.

Submit an application for a retail sales licence or a wholesale notification for tobacco products and nicotine-containing liquids to the municipality in which the sales site is located. If the sales is carried out in a vehicle, submit the application to your home municipality.

The application must include

• your or your company’s name and contact information in Finland, your personal identity code or business ID and the address of the sales site
• an account of the products the licence application concerns
• information regarding the compulsory own-check plan
• an account of the number and location of sales points in the sales site
• an account of the disposition of the tobacco products, tobacco substitutes, smoking accessories, electronic cigarettes and nicotine-containing liquids in the sales site.

Submit the application or notification using Valvira's electronic form. Notify of the change and termination of operations using Valvira's printable form. For more information, see the link "Additional information on the sale of tobacco products and nicotine-containing liquids and their wholesale".

You can also ask for more information from the environmental health care telephone service, by visiting the Environment Office or by email at ymparisto[at]ouka.fi.

Prerequisites for granting a retail sales licence:

• the applicant is of age
• the applicant presents an own-check plan that fulfils the set regulations
• the applicant has not had a licence in accordance with the Tobacco Act permanently revoked during the past two years
• the retail site for which the licence is applied is not located in an area used by children and youths (for example at a school).

The licence for retailing tobacco products and nicotine-containing liquids will not be granted for operations that contradict the Tobacco Act, or if the retail site cannot be supervised by the municipal authorities.

The wholesale of tobacco products and nicotine-containing liquids requires submitting a wholesale notification to the municipal authority supervising the Tobacco Act.

The person selling the products under the Tobacco Act must be over 18 years old. However, a person younger than this is permitted to sell tobacco products, if the sales activity is carried out under the supervision of a person over 18 years of age. The person of age must have a constant visual contact to the underage salesperson.

Selling tobacco products, nicotine-containing liquids, tobacco substitutes, smoking accessories and electronic cigarettes to a person under 18 years of age is forbidden. An entrepreneur practising sales of products under the Tobacco Act must have an own-check plan to monitor the age limits.

If the entrepreneur has established itself in another country in the European Economic Area and temporarily offers services in Finland, the same permits are required as from entrepreneurs established in Finland.

The permit is specific to the sales site and the permit holder.