Starting April 24, synthetic nicotine liquid e-cigarettes are classified as legal tobacco products, making such scenes subject to enforcement in non-smoking areas indoors.
What Changes Starting Today
April 24, 2026. Beginning today, South Korea's tobacco regulation landscape changes fundamentally.
With the revised Tobacco Business Act taking effect today (April 24), liquid-type e-cigarettes made from synthetic nicotine are classified as legal tobacco products for the first time. This marks the first change to the legal definition of tobacco in 37 years since the enactment of the Tobacco Business Act in 1988.
The synthetic nicotine-based e-cigarette market—which has been called a 'regulatory blind spot' for the past several years, with unmanned stores opening on every corner, teenagers purchasing products without verification, and no taxes being paid—falls under comprehensive legal control starting today.
This is not a simple addition of tax items or a change in administrative guidelines. The very 'definition' of tobacco has been changed. Its repercussions will extend mid-to-long term across tax revenues, industry, consumer behavior, and youth health policies overall.
This report analyzes the core provisions of the revised Tobacco Business Act implemented today by article, and examines in a multifaceted manner its practical impact on the industry, consumers, and local governments.
1. Background of the Legal Revision: Nine Years of Legislative Debate
1-1. The Birth of the 'Synthetic Nicotine Loophole'
The existing Tobacco Business Act defined tobacco as 'manufactured using tobacco leaves.' This definition was created when the law was enacted in 1988, without anticipating modern e-cigarettes or synthetic nicotine technology.
Synthetic nicotine liquid products did not fall under this definition and were not legally recognized as tobacco, serving as the basis for unmanned e-cigarette stores to operate without tobacco retail business designation, adult verification requirements, or vending machine quantity limits. Furthermore, these stores were not classified as youth access-restricted facilities, meaning their mandatory requirements were significantly lower than those of general tobacco retail stores.
Regulatory discussions began in 2016 but remained deadlocked for nine years amid industry backlash. Legislative discussions were reignited only after the harmful effects of e-cigarettes were confirmed one after another.
1-2. Scientific Evidence Drives Legislation
According to research commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 69 harmful substances were detected in raw synthetic nicotine. This is about 1.9 times higher than that of natural nicotine, and it was confirmed to contain tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), which possess carcinogenic and reproductive toxicity, in high concentrations.
President Lee Jae-myung expressed concern that nicotine substitute substances are being distributed without proper safety verification and called for stronger institutional oversight. Reports of lung injury cases associated with liquid-type e-cigarettes were also discussed at the meeting.
Ultimately, the revision passed by the National Assembly last December met its implementation today.
2. Core Contents of the Revised Act: What and How It Changes
2-1. Comprehensive Reset of the Definition of Tobacco
The core of this revision is the expansion of the definition of tobacco from 'tobacco leaves' to 'tobacco or nicotine.' The definition itself has been changed for the first time since the enactment of the Tobacco Business Act in 1988.
Consequently, products using nicotine produced via synthetic pathways are also classified as tobacco. However, pharmaceutical nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products are explicitly excluded from this classification.
2-2. Seven Newly Applied Regulations
The regulations applied uniformly to synthetic nicotine e-cigarettes starting today are summarized as follows.