To enhance public health, ensure compliance with related regulations, and create a lawful and safe commercial environment across the Kingdom’s cities, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing has approved regulatory requirements for tobacco product retailers.

The ministry clarified that the requirements cover all tobacco product and accessory retailers, including cigarettes, hookah tobacco, and electronic cigarettes. To obtain a license, it is required to provide a valid commercial registration, obtain civil defense approval, and fully comply with the municipal licensing procedures and their executive regulations.

The requirements include spatial conditions, notably that the store must be within a commercial building inside the urban area and at least 500 meters away from mosques and schools. The minimum store area is set at 36 square meters. Investors must comply with technical and architectural requirements, including facade designs consistent with the urban code or Saudi architectural guidelines, provision of ramps for people with disabilities, installation of alarm and fire extinguishing systems, and application of the Saudi building code for ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, and fire protection works.

The ministry emphasized the necessity to adhere to the technical standards specified in the regulations, which include prohibiting mixing or refilling products or selling them in unauthorized packaging, obliging stores to prove the product supplier, banning the sale of tobacco products to persons under 18 years old, prohibiting the use of public sidewalks outside the store boundaries, providing internal and external surveillance cameras, maintaining general cleanliness, safe waste disposal, and providing electronic payment methods.

The ministry stressed the importance of placing warning signs inside stores containing awareness phrases about the harms of smoking, alongside displaying a QR code linked to licensing data and regulatory authorities to ensure transparency and ease of verification. The requirements prohibit promoting tobacco products, offering rewards or free samples, and selling single cigarettes or products not conforming to the standards approved by the Food and Drug Authority.