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The Department of Trade and Industry is revising the technical regulations for vape products, with major changes expected on the auditing process for companies selling these consumer goods, according to a DTI official.
Perpetua Werlina Lim, the assistant director for the DTI’s consumer policy and advocacy bureau, on Saturday said there will be revisions on Department Administrative Order (DAO) No. 22-06 and DAO No. 24-02.
“Before, the products are tested. But now, there will be an audit process, and the results will need to be submitted directly to the department,” Lim said during the DTI’s Saturday morning radio program at the dzBB station.
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Lim said that stakeholders will have until Dec. 19 to send feedback on the changes planned on their technical regulations.
According to the DTI’s 2024 issuance, the audit and sampling shall be conducted by their regional or provincial offices, the Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS) or a BPS-accredited auditing body.
Violations
The application for the Philippine Standard (PS) license, the DTI’s certification system, will also be factory, plant or site-specific, and importer, local office or agent-specific.
Lim said that sellers peddling vape products without a PS license are violating the law and will have their goods confiscated, their business suspended and be penalized.
Republic Act No. 11900 or the Vape Act took effect in July 2022, while its implementing rules were released in December that year.
Last June, the DTI said it had already confiscated P32.76 million worth of vape products from January to May.
The DTI’s office for the special mandate on vaporized nicotine and non-nicotine products, their devices, and novel tobacco products has been encouraging consumers to report retailers violating vape regulations.