The sale of 307 million units of tobacco products was blocked at the cash registers from April 1, 2024 in the Russian Federation. This was announced by Vladislav Zaslavsky, Director of the Department of Digital labeling of goods and Product Turnover Legalization at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, during a press conference on the results of the VII All-Russian study of the illegal tobacco market in Russia.
"In the first 9 months of 2024, 307 million units of [tobacco] products were blocked, of which 279 million were cigarettes, 24 million were nicotine-containing products and almost 5 million were alternative tobacco products," Zaslavsky said.
According to him, when selling, the labeling system checks the product according to several criteria. For example, a pack of cigarettes will be blocked if the labeling system does not contain information about its introduction into circulation, there is a ban on sale by the authorities, or if it is sold in violation of the minimum or maximum retail price set by the state.
In addition, in 2024, the labeling system received information from turnover participants on 257 million kg of tobacco raw materials and 55 thousand liters of raw materials for the production of nicotine-containing products. As Zaslavsky noted, now the owner of the raw materials cannot sell it to an unregistered participant in the labeling system.
Earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to introduce automatic warnings and fines for violations when selling goods based on a labeling system, similar to fines for speed violations.
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