On January 1, 2025, Vietnam officially implemented the “E-cigarette and Heated Tobacco Products Ban”, prohibiting the production, sale, import, possession and use of related products. Violators may face up to 15 years in prison. This ban originated from Resolution No. 173 passed by the Vietnamese National Assembly, which aims to curb the impact of e-cigarettes on the health of young people. According to statistics, the proportion of new tobacco users in Vietnam aged 13-15 has soared to 8% in 2023, and related hospitalizations have surged. However, the actual effect of the law after it came into effect is contrary to the original intention of the legislation.
Search engines and social platforms are rampant: searching for “Vape-Pod” on Google can display millions of results, and hundreds of online stores are still publicly marked as “open for business”. Merchants in Ho Chi Minh City guide consumers through the entire process of product selection, payment and logistics through platforms such as Zalo, Facebook, and TikTok.Professional banned websites emerge: Websites such as ttvape.vn not only mark product parameters and prices in detail, but also provide contact numbers and online customer service, making transactions extremely concealed. Law enforcement is difficult: Lawyer Yang Liyouan pointed out that the law lacks targeted regulatory measures for online transactions, and social platforms have not actively blocked relevant keywords, making it difficult to trace illegal acts.
Reporters found that some merchants in Ho Chi Minh City have built a closed-loop transaction through platforms such as Zalo, TikTok, and Telegram: Product selection: Merchants send e-cigarette product catalogs to users, including banned items such as “fruit-flavored cigarette cartridges” and “invisible atomizers” with toy-like appearance designs; Payment: Payment is completed through cryptocurrency or third-party collection platforms to circumvent bank supervision; Logistics: Use the express company’s “collection point self-pickup” model to avoid directly sending banned items to the delivery address.
Although the General Department of Customs of Vietnam has stopped the import clearance of e-cigarettes since January 1, 2025, the phenomenon of smuggling heated tobacco products by motorcycle “ant moving” still exists in northern border provinces (such as Lang Son). Merchants take advantage of the complex terrain of the China-Vietnam border to disassemble the goods into parts and transport them in batches.
Surge in hospitalization cases: In 2023, more than 1,200 adolescents were hospitalized in Vietnam due to e-cigarette-related respiratory diseases, and some patients showed symptoms of acute lung injury and nicotine poisoning; Campus infiltration case: A survey of a middle school in Hanoi showed that 15% of students bought e-cigarettes through Telegram groups introduced by classmates, and sellers in the group induced consumption with false propaganda such as “0 nicotine” and “fruit health formula”.
As a representative brand in the e-cigarette industry, VEEHOO has always emphasized compliance operations and social responsibility: Actively cooperate with regulatory requirements: Before the ban came into effect, VEEHOO had completely stopped sales in the Vietnamese market and recalled unsold products to avoid entering the underground market. Promoting the establishment of industry standards: VEEHOO has jointly launched the “Youth Health Protection Plan” with public health agencies to restrict minors from purchasing through technical means, and disclose product ingredient data to improve transparency. Calling for shared responsibility on platforms: VEEHOO publicly urged companies such as Google and Meta (Facebook’s parent company) to block banned keywords, cut off online transaction links, and form a regulatory synergy with the government.
The chaos of e-cigarettes in Vietnam has exposed the governance shortcomings of “legislation first, implementation lagging behind”. If the situation is to be reversed, efforts must be made in multiple dimensions: Strengthening technical supervision: requiring e-commerce and social platforms to establish a banned word library and use AI to identify illegal content; increasing the cost of violations: imposing high fines on illegal merchants and platforms, and including them in the credit blacklist; public education and alternatives: expanding tobacco harm publicity, while providing traditional smokers with smoking cessation support services to reduce their dependence on e-cigarettes.
The failure of Vietnam’s e-cigarette ban is not an isolated case, and many markets around the world are facing similar challenges. VEEHOO’s practice shows that brand self-discipline and technological innovation can be an effective supplement to supervision. Only through the collaboration of the government, enterprises and society can we break the vicious circle of “strict legislation and loose implementation” and truly achieve public health goals.
Tags: online trading of e-cigarettes, worsening youth health crisis, e-cigarette ban, veehoo vape
