How Can a Retailer Buy Tobacco and Vape Stock Legally?

A retailer should buy tobacco and vaping stock only from a supplier that the law allows to sell it, and should refuse anything that lacks the right stamp. Federal law makes it an offence to buy for sale from a maker you know, or ought to know, is unlicensed, or to buy stock that must be stamped and is not. Most provinces add a second layer: a retailer buys from a registered or licensed wholesaler. This page covers the buying side. The stamp itself is described on the excise stamp page and the penalty detail for possession is on the penalties page. This is general information and not legal advice.

Tobacco: what the Excise Act, 2001 requires of a buyer

Section 25(1) says only a holder of a tobacco licence may manufacture a tobacco product. Section 26 requires a tobacco dealer’s licence, and section 2 defines a tobacco dealer as someone who buys for resale or sells raw leaf tobacco on which duty is not imposed. In the tobacco sections we read (ss. 24 to 35) we found no provision that requires a retailer of stamped products to hold a federal licence. The permit a province asks of a shop is a separate matter and is outside this page.

The buyer’s duty is in section 29. No person may purchase or receive for sale a tobacco product:

• from a manufacturer the person knows, or ought to know, is not a tobacco licensee
• that must be packaged and stamped under the Act but is not
• that the person knows, or ought to know, is fraudulently stamped

Because of the words “ought to know”, a retailer who ignores an obvious missing stamp or an unlicensed source cannot rely on not having checked. Section 32 then bars selling or possessing an unstamped tobacco product, and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) says possession of excise stamps themselves is limited to tobacco licensees and prescribed persons (importers approved to buy stamps), so a shop has no lawful reason to hold loose stamps.

Vaping products

The vaping rules copy the tobacco structure. Section 158.35(1) requires a vaping product licence to manufacture, and section 158.43 forbids buying or receiving a vaping product for sale from a manufacturer you know or ought to know is not a vaping product licensee, or one that must be packaged and stamped and is not, or one you know or ought to know is fraudulently stamped.

The CRA’s notice on obtaining a vaping licence says every person that manufactures vaping products in Canada needs one, as does anyone importing unstamped packaged products for stamping here. The notice also indicates that a business which only handles or sells stamped products, such as a retail outlet or a warehouse distributor of duty-paid goods, does not need a licence. An importer without a licence who brings in stamped, packaged vaping products becomes a vaping prescribed person, approved by the CRA to obtain stamps. In practice, a lawful chain starts with a licensee or a prescribed person, and every pack that reaches your shelf already carries a stamp.

Section 158.44 applies to everyone who is not a vaping product licensee. Unless prescribed circumstances exist, no one may sell, offer for sale, buy or possess a vaping product that is not packaged and stamped to show duty is paid. In a specified vaping province the product also needs the stamp showing the additional duty. The CRA’s stamp overview says every vaping product entering the duty-paid market must bear a stamp, that products for provinces outside the specified group carry a peach Canada stamp, and that stock for a specified province must carry that province’s stamp. Nova Scotia’s stamp was required from 1 April 2026. The list of specified provinces and the duty behind it are on the vape tax page.

Provincial rules on who you buy from

Provinces tax tobacco themselves, and most name the supplier a retailer must use. We list only what an official page states.

Province	What the official page says about buying
Ontario	Retail dealers must only buy from Ontario-registered tobacco wholesalers. A wholesaler must confirm the retailer holds a retail dealer’s permit before supplying it. A registrant list is published.
British Columbia	A retailer must buy from a registered wholesaler that holds a wholesaler permit and must present a valid tobacco retail authorization (TRA) to buy. A wholesaler may sell only to TRA holders or other permitted wholesalers.
Alberta	Retailers must buy all tobacco from wholesalers or importers licensed in Alberta. Tobacco stamped or marked for other provinces cannot be sold there. Alberta retailers generally need no registration, with exceptions such as on-reserve retailers.
Saskatchewan	Retailers need a licence for each location and must buy from a licensed wholesaler. All suppliers need a tobacco tax supplier licence.
Manitoba	A retail dealer may not buy from a dealer who is not a collector holding a wholesaler’s licence (s. 4(4.1)), and no one may sell to a retail dealer without a wholesale licence (s. 4(4)).
Nova Scotia	A wholesale vendor’s permit is required by law to sell, store and distribute tobacco to retailers. A wholesaler needs a separate permit to buy and sell unmarked tobacco.

For vaping products, we found no provincial page that adds a separate supplier rule, so the federal licence and stamp tests are the ones to apply.

Checking stamps on delivery

Check before the goods go into the stockroom. The federal stamp seals the pack and carries the province or territory where it is meant to be sold, as laid out on the stamp page. A delivery should match the province you sell in. Ontario’s stamp has a yellow background with ON, B.C. says its packs, cartons and cases must bear its unique stamp, and Nova Scotia describes unmarked tobacco as not stamped with the Nova Scotia Pantone purple stamp. Alberta states that stock marked for other provinces cannot be sold there.

For vaping products the CRA says the stamp has a nine character identifier unique to each stamp, a duty-paid indicator and a province abbreviation on a colour band. The notice lists only narrow exceptions, such as vaping product drugs with a drug identification number and personal imports within prescribed limits, so a missing stamp on an ordinary retail vape is a reason to refuse the delivery.

Price is a second signal. B.C. says the provincial tobacco tax portion of a carton is $65.00 and that a carton sold for less than that is likely illegal.

Invoices and record keeping

The federal records rule, section 206, applies to licensees and registrants, people required to file returns or claim refunds, and people transporting unstamped tobacco, cannabis or vaping products. They must keep records in Canada in English or French for six years after the end of the year they relate to. Anyone issued excise stamps must also record their receipt and use. A shop that only buys stamped goods is not named in section 206(1), so its record duties come mainly from the province.

Ontario is the clearest. Retail dealers must keep records and books of account for all tobacco purchases and sales for seven years at their principal place of business, and at an inspection must produce the permit, receipts, invoices and shipping documents. A dealer who cannot prove tax was paid on inventory may receive a Preliminary Advice of Assessment. Keeping each supplier invoice with the supplier’s registration or permit details is the practical way to meet that. The other provinces’ pages we read did not set out an invoice or retention period, which we list below.

If you are offered unstamped stock

Decline it. Section 29 makes buying or receiving it for sale an offence, and section 32 makes possessing it one, so accepting a delivery to inspect it later exposes you to both. For vaping products section 158.44 bars buying or possessing unstamped packaged stock. None of the official pages we read gives a step-by-step script for a retailer who is offered illegal stock, so we do not invent one. The pages do say where to report it:

• Ontario: email MOF.Tips@ontario.ca, call Ontario Crime Stoppers on 1-800-222-8477, or use the anonymous online tip form.
• British Columbia: an online tip form for tobacco tax, or BC Crime Stoppers, with a toll-free line on 1-877-977-0858.

Ask the tax authority or a lawyer before handing over or moving any stock you already hold.

Penalties that apply to buyers

Possession penalties, Ontario’s fine scale and B.C.’s list are set out on the penalties page. This page adds the buying offence and the vaping penalty.

• Buying for sale under section 29 (tobacco) or section 158.43 (vaping) falls under section 214: on indictment a fine of $50,000 to $1,000,000, up to five years in prison or both, and on summary conviction a fine of $10,000 to $500,000, up to 18 months or both.
• For vaping products, section 234.2 sets an administrative penalty of 200% of the applicable duty for breaching section 158.43 or 158.44, which includes buying, possessing or selling unstamped stock. The Act’s formula doubles the duty amount in a specified vaping province, so the penalty there works out to four times the basic duty (our arithmetic). The amendments took effect on 20 June 2024.
• Saskatchewan sets a fine of up to $10,000 or two years for an individual, up to $50,000 for a corporation, plus an extra fine of two times the tax evaded, and says improperly marked products may be seized and forfeited.
• Ontario says a retailer found selling contraband may face penalties, fines and imprisonment and may be banned from selling tobacco or lottery products.

The rate of duty that underlies these amounts is on the federal excise history page.

What we could not confirm

• Rules for Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. We did not read an official page for them, and Revenu Québec’s page returned an access error earlier.
• Whether Nova Scotia requires a retailer to buy only from a permit-holding wholesaler. The permit pages we read say wholesalers need a permit to sell to retailers but do not state a buying rule, and the province’s tobacco overview we read is dated November 2020. Its bulletins on wholesaler bookkeeping and retailer requirements were not opened.
• Invoice and record retention rules in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. The pages we opened do not state them.
• Offence and penalty amounts in Manitoba’s Tobacco Tax Act. They were not in the text returned to us, and we read an unofficial consolidation.
• A federal or CRA tool for checking that a vaping or tobacco supplier is licensed. The licence notice describes none.
• The Schedule 8 amounts used in the vaping penalty formula in section 234.2, so we give no dollar example.
• Whether a particular supplier, product or delivery is lawful. Ask the relevant tax authority, or a lawyer, before relying on this page.