Is It Legal to Order Vapes Online in Canada?

No section of the federal Tobacco and Vaping Products Act that we read bans selling vapes online. What the Act does ban is sending or delivering a vape to someone under 18, and the rules on stamps and imports apply to every sale, online or not. Provinces can go further. Quebec’s public health institute lists an online sales ban, and Ontario has a bill that would add one. This page covers online sales, delivery and importing. Minimum ages are in legal vaping age by province, and in-store duties are in vape retailer rules.

What federal law says

Section 8(1) of the Act bars furnishing a tobacco or vaping product to a young person, defined as someone under 18, in a public place or a place the public can access. A seller has a defence if they asked for and were shown the documentation prescribed for verifying age and reasonably believed it was genuine.

Section 9(1) is the one that matters for online orders. It says no person shall send or deliver a tobacco product or vaping product to a young person. Two defences follow:

• The sender is protected if they told the person delivering about the product and the ban on delivering it to a young person, and instructed them to verify the recipient was at least 18 by examining identification.
• The person making delivery is protected if they did verify age by examining federal, provincial or foreign government photo identification showing name, date of birth and signature, and reasonably believed it was authentic.

Section 45 sets the fine range for these offences at up to $3,000 for a first offence and up to $50,000 for a later one.

Section 9.1 bars sending tobacco products from one province to another for consideration, and advertising an offer to do so, with exceptions for manufacturers and retailers. It names tobacco products and does not name vaping products, so the interprovincial shipping ban in the text we read does not extend to vapes.

Health Canada says its inspectors cover online based establishments and that it expects vaping product establishments, including online ones, to prevent young Canadians from accessing vaping products. It suggests verifying identification for anyone looking to purchase. The page sets out no online-only rules and no detailed age-verification method. The Act also restricts advertising that could appeal to young persons (s. 30.1) and the promotion or sale of vapes whose appearance or function could appeal to them (s. 30.41). This page does not go into advertising.

What the provinces say

Jurisdiction	What we found on official pages
Quebec	A November 2025 report from Quebec’s public health institute (INSPQ) lists a ban on online sales and taxation of vaping products among the measures that accompanied the regulation and legal sale to people 18 and older. We could not open the Quebec government or statute pages to read the rule itself.
Ontario	The government’s page on selling tobacco and vapour products covers in-store rules and does not mention online sales or delivery. Bill 125 (2026) would add “No person shall sell or offer to sell vapour products online”, limit sales to specialty vape stores and designated rural stores, and raise the age to 21. It passed first reading on 26 May 2026 and is not law. If enacted it would take effect 120 days after Royal Assent.
British Columbia	Section 2(2) of the Tobacco and Vapour Products Control Act bars selling or providing vapour products to anyone under the age set by regulation. The Act text we read has no provision specific to online, mail or delivery sales.
Alberta	The government page sets a minimum age of 18 with photo ID and lists retailer fines of $500 to $750, including for selling to someone who appears under 25 without checking ID. It does not mention online sales.
Saskatchewan	The retailer page says only adults 19 and older can buy and requires government-issued photo ID in retail stores. It does not mention online sales.

A page that is silent on online sales does not prove the law is silent. These are summary pages, and we did not find an official statement either way for Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta or Saskatchewan. Start with the age table for your province.

The excise stamp

The Canada Revenue Agency says all vaping products entering the duty-paid market must bear a vaping excise stamp. Products meant for a specified vaping province need that province’s stamp, and products for any other province need the peach-coloured Canada stamp. CBSA’s memo says packaged products must be stamped before they can be released under the Customs Act, unless a licensee imports them for its own manufacturing or stamping.

Selling without a stamp is risky for the seller. Under section 234.2 of the Excise Act, 2001, a person that receives for sale, offers for sale, sells, distributes or possesses an unstamped vaping product is in contravention of the Act, which can carry a penalty of 200% of the applicable duty. The CRA states that no person may possess unstamped packaged vaping products unless the Act explicitly permits it. A site that ships unstamped bottles to Canadian addresses is therefore outside the duty-paid market. Duty rates and the list of specified provinces are in vape tax in Canada.

Importing vapes you ordered from abroad

CBSA Memorandum D18-3-2 treats a person importing vaping products only for personal use, up to a prescribed limit of 5 units, differently from a business: no licence, no vaping prescribed person status and no stamping. A unit is 120 mL of vaping liquid, or 120 g of solid, within no more than 12 devices and immediate containers.

Three points limit what that means in practice.

1. Duty still applies. The memo says duty is relieved on one unit and does not reconcile that with the 5-unit limit, so we cannot tell you how much you would owe on a larger order.
2. Residents of specified provinces pay more. From 1 July 2024 the additional vaping duty applies to vaping products imported by an individual for personal use if the individual resides in a specified vaping province. The memo does not say how residency is determined.
3. Mail, not courier. Vaping products are excluded from the courier low-value shipment program, and commercial or casual vaping goods are eligible for the postal stream. Personal imports of 5 units or fewer follow the casual goods process, and the officer determines the duties.

Separate rules apply when you carry vapes in luggage. The CBSA traveller page requires you to be 18 to bring vaping products in under your personal exemption, allows 120 mL of liquid or 120 g of solid in no more than 12 devices and containers, and asks that stamped products be marked “duty paid Canada”. See travelling with vapes and the tobacco side in how much tobacco you can bring into Canada.

What we could not confirm

• The text of Quebec’s rule on online sales. The Quebec government pages returned errors, so we rely on the INSPQ report and say nothing more about its scope or penalties.
• Ontario’s Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017 on delivery. The e-Laws page did not render. Bill 125 may have moved since our read on 31 October 2026.
• Online and delivery rules in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the territories.
• Whether Health Canada has finalized rules on age verification for online sales. Its forward regulatory plan page did not load.
• The part of the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act after section 57, which our tool cut off.
• Whether Canada Post or any courier checks ID on vape parcels. We found no official page on it.
• Provincial penalties for online sales.