![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/news-p.v1.20260702.b52cd5a278184beb8e855156c60154ce_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Seoul")
A view of an e-cigarette store in Seoul. Photo for illustrative purposes. News1<\/p>\nA view of an e-cigarette store in Seoul. Photo for illustrative purposes. News1<\/p>\n
Four out of 10 e-cigarette vending machines in Seoul fail to properly screen out forged or altered identification cards, according to a city inspection. Critics say the adult-verification systems designed to block access by minors are effectively not functioning.<\/p>\n
The Seoul Metropolitan Government released the results of an intensive inspection of e-cigarette retailers in the city on Wednesday. The inspection was conducted over two months, from April 24 to June 23, during a grace period following a revision to the Tobacco Business Act.<\/p>\n
Of the 415 e-cigarette vending machines identified by the city, 339 were capable of adult verification through ID cards. However, 168 of those machines (40.5%) approved verification even with forged or altered IDs.<\/p>\n
To test the machines’ ability to detect forgery, the city created five types of ID cards: one resident registration card featuring a photo of the cartoon character “Dooly,” two resident registration cards with photos of fictional adult men and women, and two driver’s licenses.<\/p>\n
As a result, 112 machines recognized all five of the forged IDs prepared by the city as valid. Concluding that the vending machines’ adult-verification systems do not adequately perform their youth-protection function, the city recommended that relevant agencies improve the system.<\/p>\n
Only 1 in 3 Displayed Warning Notices; Many Tobacco Ads Visible From Outside<\/p>\n
The inspection also found that youth sales bans and tobacco advertising management were generally inadequate.<\/p>\n
The city inspected 666 e-cigarette retailers for compliance with sales, advertising and youth-protection regulations. Of these, 190 stores, or 28.5% of the total, installed and operated vending machines.<\/p>\n
Under the Youth Protection Act, “no sales to minors” warning notices must be posted inside tobacco retail outlets and on vending machines. But only 390 outlets (58.6%) had posted the warning inside their stores. Among stores operating vending machines, only 63 of 190 (33.2%) displayed the warning.<\/p>\n
Even where notices were posted, many failed to meet the required standards. The inspection found that 40.3% of stores posting notices inside their outlets and 30.2% of stores posting notices on vending machines used notices that did not comply with the standards.<\/p>\n
Tobacco advertising management was also lax. Among the retailers surveyed, 375 displayed e-cigarette advertisements inside their stores, and 254 of these (67.7%) had ads visible from outside. The National Health Promotion Act stipulates that tobacco advertisements must not be exposed outside business premises.<\/p>\n
Liquid E-Cigarette Use Rising; 5,956 Guidance Actions in No-Smoking Zones<\/p>\n
During the inspection period, the city also carried out a total of 5,956 on-site guidance actions against liquid e-cigarette smoking in no-smoking zones. Under the revised Tobacco Business Act, once the grace period ends, liquid e-cigarettes will also be prohibited in no-smoking zones.<\/p>\n
Liquid e-cigarette use has been steadily increasing. The usage rate among adult men in Seoul roughly doubled from 3.4% in 2022 to 6.5% this year. Among adolescents, the liquid e-cigarette usage rate reached 2.4% in 2025, exceeding the conventional cigarette smoking rate (2.2%) for the first time.<\/p>\n
Based on the inspection results, the city conveyed to relevant agencies its view that institutional supplements are needed, including improvements to the adult-verification systems on tobacco vending machines and a revision of the enforcement rules of the National Health Promotion Act. The city plans to send notices requesting improvements to adult-verification systems to businesses operating vending machines, and to produce standard-compliant “no sales to minors” warning notices for distribution to e-cigarette retailers within its jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
“For the expansion of liquid e-cigarette regulations to be effective, changes on the ground must accompany the overhaul of laws and systems,” said Cho Young-chang, director general of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Citizens’ Health Bureau. “Seoul will continue diverse efforts, from on-site guidance to urging the industry’s self-purification efforts, and take the lead in creating a smoke-free environment that puts citizens’ health first.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A view of an e-cigarette store in Seoul. Photo for illustrative purposes. News1 Four out of 10 e-cigarette…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39964,39962,39278,39963,112,39961,39282,36344],"class_list":["post-73689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seoul","tag-adult-verification","tag-forged-id-verification","tag-liquid-e-cigarette","tag-national-health-promotion-act","tag-seoul","tag-seoul-e-cigarette-vending-machines","tag-tobacco-business-act","tag-youth-protection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}