The Victorian Government has released an update to the rules and regulations regarding the sale, advertising, and display of tobacco and e-cigarettes.
Under the new Tobacco Regulations, there will be a few changes made to price notices/boards and their display of information.
The changes will be implemented from 1 August, and have a number of requirements that must be met. These requirements stipulate that price boards must:
- be no bigger than 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres
- have letters and numbers no bigger than 2.1 centimetres high by 1.5 centimetres wide
- have letters and numbers printed in the same font, font size and font style
- be printed on one side only in black and white or up to four colours, none of which is fluorescent
- not make information about one product more noticeable than another
- not make information more noticeable than other tickets or labels in the shop
- not highlight price information with artificial lighting greater than that used throughout the shop
- have a prescribed graphic health warning sign on, or immediately next to, the price board.
For retailers that sell e-cigarettes, only one prescribed board is permitted to advise customers of either e-cigarettes or tobacco products. This board must be at the point of sale.
One price board may not contain information about both tobacco and e-cigarettes.
E-cigarette price boards have the same requirements as tobacco products, aside from the need for a graphic health warning sign.
Additional information can be displayed including; ingredients of the liquid or substances contained in a cartridge, volume of liquid or substances contained in a cartridge, wattage of the e-cigarette product.
According to the Victorian Government, these changes have been made to ensure that price boards don’t contain price incentives, graphic health warnings are correctly displayed and information regarding pricing is depicted in a uniform manner.