Sale and Supervision of Tobacco Products

The restriction of smoking is aimed at protecting the population from health hazards caused by cigarette smoke. The municipality has the duty to supervise the sale and advertisement of cigarettes and the observance of smoking bans. In the operational area of municipal environmental health care in Seinäjoki, the observance of the Smoking Act is monitored by health inspectors, who make visitations to places of sale of cigarettes and to those restaurants in which smoking is allowed. In the supervision, an officially approved monitoring programme is implemented.

The sale of tobacco products became subject to licence on 1 April 2009.
The Tobacco Decree includes a transition period of one year. According to the Decree, tobacco products may be sold and handed over without a retail sales licence for one year as of the effective date of the Act if an application for a retail sales licence has been submitted to the municipality within three months of the enactment of the Act, i.e. by 30 June 2009. Consequently, tobacco products may be sold without a sales licence until 31 March 2010 if the seller has submitted an application for a retail sales licence for tobacco products, together with its self-supervision appendixes, to the health inspector or to the electronic pages of Valvira. Tobacco products cannot be sold or purchased from a wholesaler as from 1 July 2009 if there is no entry about the submission of the application in the Retail Sales Licence Register.

An electronic application form can be found on the Internet pages of Valvira (the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health). It is desired that entrepreneurs use primarily the electronic application, because it allows the wholesaler to get up-to-date information about the submission of the application or the granting of the retail sales licence. The page related to the application for the retail sales licence provides instructions for the application procedure and the appendixes.

If you fill in the application in writing, deliver it to the Environmental Health Care Department of the City of Seinäjoki, address Keskuskatu 32 I, 60100 Seinäjoki,
or by email firstname.surname@seinajoki.fi, fax 06 4255 408

The decision on the retail sales licence is made by the municipal authority in charge of tobacco control. The municipality collects a confirmed fee for the processing of the retail sales licence. The fee approved by the City of Seinäjoki:
1 to 2 points of sale cost 125 €; 3 or more points of sale 250 €
In addition, there is a control fee of 25 € for 1 to 2 points of sale, and of 50 € for 3 or more points of sale.

If you need personal counselling in issues related to the retail sales licence of tobacco products, you can contact the health inspector of the Environmental Health Department of the City of Seinäjoki.

Health inspector Eila Saarimäki, Tel. +358 6 4255710 and +358 50 5811693, eila.saarimaki(at)seinajoki.fi

The sale and control of pharmaceutical products aimed at nicotine substitution treatment