Supervision of tobacco sales and collection of supervision fees

Everyone who sells tobacco products must be registered in the Tobacco Sales Register and pay a supervision fee.

Registering and de-registering in the Tobacco Sales Register

  • Everyone who sells tobacco products must register in the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s Tobacco Sales Register. The same applies to anyone who sells e-cigarettes, refills, herb-based smoking products and other tobacco surrogates.
  • The sales outlet is responsible for keeping the information in the register up to date.
  • Anyone who stops selling tobacco products must de-register from the Tobacco Sales Register. The same applies to any temporary sales outlets.

Read more about how to register and de-register in the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s Tobacco Sales Register

Supervision of tobacco sales

Næringsetaten inspects all establishments that sell tobacco products to consumers.

We check to ensure that:

  • the information in the Tobacco Sales Register is consistent with the information at the sales outlet
  • tobacco products are not sold to anyone under the age of 18
  • there is no advertising of tobacco products
  • tobacco products and tobacco equipment are not openly displayed (does not apply to specialist businesses)
  • tobacco products are not sold at a discount or given away
  • the products have been purchased from a registered wholesaler
  • the sales outlet has an internal control that provides employees with sufficient knowledge of the regulatory framework

Internal control for establishments that sell tobacco

All tobacco sales outlets must have an internal control system that can be demonstrated at each inspection. The internal control must ensure that employees have sufficient knowledge of the regulatory framework, and contribute to proper operations. It is particularly important to have procedures for preventing the sale of tobacco products and e-cigarettes to minors. It is also important to follow up and improve ineffective procedures and measures.

The internal control should ensure that the responsible parties at each sales outlet:

  • understand the legal regulations
  • provide other employees with training on the regulations and the sales outlet’s own procedures
  • maintain an overview of the distribution of tasks and responsibilities
  • assess challenges
  • have procedures for ensuring compliance with the regulations
  • have procedures for preventing, detecting and rectifying non-conformances
  • regularly review their internal controls

Example of an internal control that can be downloaded and filled in (ODT)
Example of an internal control that can be downloaded and filled in (PDF)

Read more about internal controls for tobacco sales outlets

Violations of legislation to prevent the harmful effects of tobacco

Breaches of the regulations may result in various sanctions:

  • rectification of the illegal conditions
  • a temporary sales ban
  • a mandatory fine

Supervision fee

All tobacco sales outlets must pay a supervision fee to their local authority each year. The supervision fee for permanent sales outlets is NOK 4,800 a year.

The supervision fee for temporary sales outlets is NOK 1,280 a year. This applies to sales outlets that sell goods part of the year, or on a one-off basis.

Laws and regulations

Rules for the sale of tobacco products
The Norwegian Act relating to the Prevention of the Harmful Effects of Tobacco
The Tobacco Sales Regulations