A police officer (right) and a staff member of the tobacco monopoly bureau in Daishan county, East China’s Zhejiang Province count smuggled e-cigarette cartridges. Local police uncovered a case involving smuggling into China and illegal operation of the cigarettes. Police arrested 20 suspects and seized more than 2,000 e-cigarette cartridges with a value of more than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million). Photo: VCG

 
China has added e-cigarettes to its newly announced tobacco monopoly law, which indicates that the billion yuan market has been placed under government management like other tobacco types.

On Friday, the State Council announced a decision to amend its tobacco monopoly law. According to the amendment, new types of tobacco products like e-cigarettes will be managed referring to the regulations on cigarettes.

It should be a signal that e-cigarettes, which have stood in a grey area of government regulation for a long time, are finally moved under supervision in China. 

This should exert a large and somewhat complicated impact on China's e-cigarette market, which amounted to about 8.38 billion yuan in 2020, according to information released by data analysis firm iimedia.cn.

China's e-cigarette market had a compound annual growth rate of 72.5 percent between 2013 and 2020, the report said. 

Upon news of the amendment, Chinese e-vapor brand RELX Technology saw its share once slump by more than 15 percent to $4.55 on the US stock markets in premarket trading. 

It can be seen as a sign that government regulation might hurt some e-cigarette makers' business in China in the short term, but some media also pointed that it could be a bonus for the industry in the long run, as e-cigarettes can circulate lawfully in China which will provide business chances for companies, including private firms. 

RELX said that it "firmly supports" amendment of the law and will actively implement regulation requirements later, according to media reports.