What Must a Quebec Shop Do to Sell Tobacco and Vapes?

A shop in Quebec that sells tobacco or vaping products answers to three sets of rules: the provincial Tobacco Control Act, the federal Tobacco and Vaping Products Act, and Revenu Québec’s tobacco tax rules. This page covers the first and third. Quebec’s Act treats an e-cigarette as tobacco, so most of what applies to a pack of cigarettes also applies to a vape on the same shelf.

We read the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) information bulletins of 2023, the English text of the 2015 amending Act, the MSSS report on the Act’s first five years, a Revenu Québec interpretation bulletin and a 2025 Finance bulletin. Quebec’s legislation site, Revenu Québec’s web pages and quebec.ca refused our requests on 31 October 2026, so we could not read the current consolidated Act. Where a figure comes from the 2015 text or an older bulletin, the section says so. The MSSS bulletins describe themselves as plain-language tools, and the text of the law prevails over them.

What the Act covers

Quebec renamed its Tobacco Act the Tobacco Control Act in November 2015 and brought e-cigarettes, their components and accessories, and vaping liquids under it. The rules on use, sale and promotion of tobacco now apply to those products as well. The Act also counts cigarette tubes, rolling paper, filters, pipes and cigarette holders as tobacco. The federal side of a retailer’s duties is in vape retailer rules in Canada.

Age and ID checks

Quebec’s Act forbids selling tobacco to a minor, giving tobacco to a minor in a point of sale, and selling to an adult who is known to be buying for a minor. A minor who buys tobacco commits an offence, and since 26 November 2016 an adult may not buy tobacco for a minor. The same sale ban covers e-cigarettes and vaping liquids.

The Act’s word is “minor”, and the bulletins print no number. Quebec’s public health institute says vaping products became legal to sell to people aged 18 and over, and federal law bars supplying either product to anyone under 18. Our selling to minors guide compares provinces.

On ID, section 13.1 of the Act, as enacted in 2015, lets the operator or an employee ask a buyer for proof of age. The buyer must then show photo identification issued by a government, a government department or a public body, with name and date of birth. The seller must refuse the sale if the identification cannot prove who the person is. The text we read sets no “looks under 25” trigger, so the shop decides when to ask. Inspectors have their own power: they can require anyone in an outlet, or leaving it, to show age-proof ID if they reasonably believe the person bought tobacco.

Every cash register used to sell tobacco must carry the sign banning sales to minors, which includes the Minister’s health warning. The Ministry supplies the sign, it must be in public view, and nobody may remove or alter it. No-smoking signs must also be posted.

Where and how you may sell

• A tobacco point of sale is a fixed place with continuous floor-to-ceiling walls, reachable only through a door. Retail tobacco sales happen inside it with the buyer physically present, so sales by phone or online are barred. For vapes, see also buying vapes online in Canada.
• A point of sale may not operate on the grounds or in the facilities of health and social services establishments, schools and other educational institutions, or childcare centres. It also may not operate in premises used for sports, leisure, cultural or artistic activities, in premises with a brewery, tavern or bar permit, in a place that is mainly a restaurant, or in a business that has a pharmacy or lets pharmacy customers walk straight through.
• Vending machines for tobacco or e-cigarettes are prohibited anywhere.
• Cigarettes are sold only in packs of at least 20. E-cigarettes and other tobacco products need a package of at least 10 units unless the customer pays more than $10 in a single sale.
• Renting out e-cigarettes or water pipes has been prohibited since 26 November 2015.
• The operator must declare the retail tobacco activity to the Registraire des entreprises within 30 days of starting, and declare the end of it within 30 days.

Displays and storage

Showing tobacco, its packaging, an e-cigarette or any component or accessory is prohibited in a business, with exceptions for cigar rooms, duty-free shops, recognised specialised tobacco shops and qualifying specialised e-cigarette shops. The ban on tobacco displays has applied in tobacco points of sale since 31 May 2008, and the 2015 amendments extended it to every business.

The MSSS guidelines say tobacco must sit in a storage device placed so that only the worker behind the counter can see and reach it. Where customers might still glimpse the contents, the Act is treated as respected if three things hold: products are not visible except while one is taken out for a sale, only a limited number show when the device opens, and what shows has no promotional effect. Packs stacked on their side meet that last point, and so does one front-facing pack per brand. Curtains or screens that let customers see most of the range during a sale do not meet it. Brief visibility while counting stock is allowed if nothing promotional comes with it. For comparisons with other provinces, see retail licensing and display bans.

Promotion and advertising

A retailer may not give tobacco away or supply it for promotion, cut the price according to the quantity bought, offer a discount on the market price, or give a gift in return for information, a purchase or proof of purchase. Manufacturers and distributors may not offer retailers or their staff rebates or benefits tied to the sale or price of tobacco, a ban in force since 26 November 2016.

Advertising is allowed only on a display visible solely from inside a point of sale, or in print media with at least 85% adult readers. Inside the shop it is limited to one fixed, flat, opaque rectangular sign of at most 3,600 cm2, in black characters on white, and nobody outside may see it. The ad may be text only, apart from a picture of the package that fills at most 10% of the area. It may not suggest a lifestyle, use testimonials or slogans, or refer to people, characters or animals. The same rules cover e-cigarettes, and the MSSS gives advertising on the radio or on a shop’s own website as examples of what is banned.

Sponsorship tied to tobacco promotion is banned. So is selling or giving away an ordinary object that carries a tobacco name, logo, image or slogan, apart from a colour. This applies to e-cigarettes and their packaging as well. The wider federal picture is in tobacco advertising and promotion.

Flavours

Section 29.2 of the Act prohibits selling, offering for sale or distributing a tobacco product with any flavour or aroma other than tobacco, whether menthol, fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy or cocoa, or in packaging that suggests one. It came into force on 26 May 2016, retailers could sell existing stock until 26 August 2016, and products made in Quebec only for export are excluded.

A regulation extended the same ban to e-cigarettes, their components and accessories on 31 October 2023. Quebec’s public health institute describes the result as a ban on every flavoured vaping liquid except tobacco flavour. Menthol vapes are therefore as unavailable as fruit ones. The provincial picture is compared in flavour bans by province.

Vape shops and vape products

A specialised e-cigarette shop may display its products if it sells nothing else, runs no other activity, keeps the devices and packaging visible only from inside, and admits no minors. Its operator must send the Minister a written notice of the shop’s name and address within 30 days of opening, and again within 30 days of a change of name or address or a closure. A shop outside this category cannot display vaping products at all.

Manufacturers and distributors may not sell products above 20 mg/mL of nicotine. Tanks and pods may hold at most 2 mL, and refill containers at most 30 mL. Shape matters too: a device that looks like a toy, jewellery, food, an animal or a character is barred as attractive to minors. A device containing liquid also needs the nicotine concentration in mg/mL, the volume in mL, and a statement that the flavour is tobacco or that there is none, on both the product and the package. Retailers should check stock against these points before it goes on sale. Quebec’s approach to nicotine pouches is summarised on our nicotine pouches page.

Revenu Québec: registration, permits and tax

Under section 3 of the Tobacco Tax Act, nobody may sell tobacco at retail in an establishment in Quebec unless a registration certificate under the Quebec sales tax rules has been issued and is in force for retail tobacco sales at that establishment. A business applies with form LM-1, and the certificate must be issued before the first retail sale. Revenu Québec’s 2013 bulletin gives the fine for selling without it as $5,000 to $50,000, or $10,000 to $125,000 for a repeat within five years. Those ranges are from 2013, so check the current Act.

The Act’s permits in section 6 go to collecting agents, importers, manufacturers, warehousers and carriers, and retail sellers are not on that list. The Finance Ministry also describes a prohibition on selling, delivering or possessing tobacco meant for retail sale in Quebec in a package not identified under section 13.1 of the Tobacco Tax Act. A retailer should check that stock carries the required identification.

In June 2025 the Finance Ministry announced tobacco-tax measures that take effect when the implementing bill is assented to. They include permit subcategories, the power to refuse, suspend or revoke a retail registration certificate if the holder breaks any tobacco tax or tobacco regulation law, and a ban on retailers transferring loose tobacco, aimed at shisha shops. We could not confirm that the bill was assented to, so read them as announced. Provincial rates per carton are on our tobacco tax rates page, and vaping duty is on the vape tax page.

Inspections and penalties

The Minister appoints inspectors, who may visit a point of sale at any reasonable hour. The operator must give reasonable help and may not obstruct the inspector, mislead them, withhold information or documents they may require, or destroy them. In the MSSS report, inspectors can issue warnings or statements of offence. Between 26 November 2015 and 31 March 2020 there were 32,949 inspection activities of all kinds, and the Ministry succeeded in 88.2% of the 10,617 statements of offence closed by then. MSSS compliance checks with 16-year-old test buyers found 84% to 93% of shops refusing the sale from 2015 to 2020, except for 65% in 2016-2017. Specialised vape shops refused the sale in 74% to 90% of checks.

Fines in the 2015 text of the Act, the latest we could read:

Offence	First offence	Repeat
Operator of a tobacco outlet sells to a minor	$2,500 to $62,500	$5,000 to $125,000
Employee makes that sale	$500 to $1,500	$1,000 to $3,000
Adult buys tobacco for a minor	$500 to $1,500	$1,000 to $3,000
Outlet operator breaks the notice, certification or warning duties in ss. 8.1.1, 20.3.1, 20.4 or 20.5	$1,000 to $25,000	$2,000 to $50,000
Sale of flavoured tobacco (s. 29.2)	$2,500 to $125,000	$5,000 to $250,000
A minor buys tobacco in an outlet	$100	not stated

Manufacturers and distributors face higher ranges. The MSSS bulletin adds that fines come with court costs and a contribution under the Code of Penal Procedure, and that some can exceed $5,000. The bulletin refers to the Act’s own text for amounts, so use the current consolidated Act for the amount when a ticket is at stake.

An operator found guilty more than once within five years of selling to a minor, or to an adult known to be buying for one, loses the right to sell tobacco for three months on the second finding and a year on the third. Three findings in five years for failing to post the minor-sales sign on each register bring a one-month suspension. Between 2015 and 2020, Revenu Québec suspended 239 operators at the Ministry’s request. That report notes that vape shops were outside the suspension at the time because vaping products were not tobacco under the Tobacco Tax Act. The 2025 measures may alter that. Liability also reaches beyond the clerk: proof that an employee committed an offence is enough to establish that the employer did, unless the employer shows due diligence, and directors and officers are presumed to have committed their company’s offence unless they show the same.

What we could not confirm

• The current consolidated text of the Tobacco Control Act and its regulation. Legisquebec refused our requests, so fines, section numbers and the age wording come from the 2015 amending Act and 2023 bulletins and may have changed since. We did not check whether the amounts have been adjusted.
• The numeric minimum age for tobacco in Quebec law. The Act says “minor”, and we could not open the Civil Code to confirm the age of majority. We state 18 only for vaping, from the public health institute, and for federal law.
• The “fee-based permit” for selling tobacco and nicotine vaping products that the public health institute lists. The report does not say who issues it or what it costs, and Revenu Québec’s pages were blocked.
• Whether vape retailers must hold the Revenu Québec registration certificate. The documents we read tie it to tobacco, and the 2020 MSSS report says vaping products were not tobacco under the Tobacco Tax Act at the time.
• Whether the 2025 tobacco tax measures became law, and what the current Revenu Québec fines are.
• How the provincial tobacco tax reaches the shelf price, and the current per-cigarette rate. See the rates page for the last figure we could read.
• Sign dimensions for the minor-sales and no-smoking signs.
• Quebec’s own pharmacy-only rule for nicotine pouches. We know of it only through the federal Minister of Health’s 2024 statement.