Selling nicotine replacement therapy products in shops requires that
- the entrepreneur has a retail licence for nicotine products
- the products are sold in the site listed on the licence
- the products are only sold to persons who are 18 and over
- the sales person can oversee the sale of the products
- the products are not sold in vending machines.
Local environmental health care will issue the licence if the entrepreneur has the capacity to store and sell the products pursuant to the Medicines Act. The entrepreneur must notify the licence authority of any changes to the information listed in the licence application and the termination of the products' sale.
The storage, retail sale and marketing of NRT products must comply where applicable with the provisions of the Medicines Act. The sold NRT products must have a sales permit granted by either the European Commission or the Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea). The sold NTR products may only be procured from pharmaceutical wholesale licence holders to which Fimea has granted wholesale licences.
If the trader is established in another EEA state and provides services in Finland on a temporary basis, they are required to have the same permits as the traders established in Finland.
According to the Medicines Act, nicotine products can only be sold in retail stores, kiosks, service stations and restaurants that sell tobacco, due to which the point of sale must have a retail sales licence for tobacco products.
The application is processed for a fee in accordance with the rates for the Rovakaari environmental health care.