Press conference in Q4 of 2026: the launch of the MOVE website and the publication of our commissioned research. Media only. Event details
The law
One statute governs tobacco and vape in Malaysia.
Act 852 began life as the Control of Tobacco Product and Smoking Bill 2022, the vehicle for the generational end game proposal. That proposal would have barred anyone born on or after 1 January 2007 from buying tobacco or vape for their entire life, creating two classes of adult in the same shop.
MOVE opposed it and filed a memorandum of objection at Parliament in 2022. So did others, on constitutional grounds.
The generational clause did not survive into the Act that was eventually passed. What did survive is a comprehensive control statute. It received royal assent on 24 January 2024, was published in the Gazette on 2 February 2024, and came into force on 1 October 2024. It is the first Malaysian law to regulate vape products directly.
Before Act 852, vape was unregulated. When the act came into effect, it meant that vape is regulated, registered and taxed.
Act 852 covers products, substances, devices and the places where smoking or vaping may happen.
Cigarettes and other tobacco products, and also vape devices and the liquids and gels used in them. Both sit in the same statute, subject to the same framework of registration, labelling, sale control and advertising prohibition.
The substance itself, including e-liquid, as distinct from the device that delivers it. This is the category that the Poisons List litigation now cuts across.
A substitute tobacco product is defined in section 2 as any product, other than a tobacco product, that is capable of being smoked. That is the definition that brings vape inside Act 852. Heated tobacco is inside it too, but by a different route: it contains tobacco, and the regulations give heated products their own category and packaging rules.
Nicotine pouches are outside Act 852 altogether. The Ministry of Health said in June 2026 that the Act does not cover products that are not used for smoking or that contain no tobacco, and that pouches are Group C poisons under the Poisons Act 1952. The Star, 2 June 2026.
The Act empowers the Minister to declare non-smoking areas and places, which was done in a separate order gazetted in September 2024. Vaping is covered by those declarations as much as smoking is.
The Act sets the framework. The detail that binds a retailer or a manufacturer lives in subsidiary regulations gazetted alongside it, in the P.U.(A) 257 to 264 of 2024 range.
| Instrument | What it does | Status of our check |
|---|---|---|
| Declaration of Non-Smoking Area or Place Order 2024, P.U.(A) 257/2024 | Declares the 28 categories of place where smoking and vaping are prohibited. Made 26 September 2024, gazetted 30 September 2024, in force 1 October 2024. | Verified against the gazette |
| Control of Sale Regulations 2024, P.U.(A) 260/2024 | The retail rules: display, online sale, vending machines, proximity to educational institutions, and the condition in which product may be sold. Regulation 3 covers online sale and vending machines, regulation 4 covers proximity, and regulation 6 is the display ban. | Verified against the gazette |
| Packaging and Labelling Regulations 2024, P.U.(A) 261/2024 | Health warning size and placement, nicotine strength declaration, manufacturer details, and the volume limits. The authoritative labelling source, 234 pages, bilingual. | Verified against the gazette |
| Registration Regulations 2024, P.U.(A) 262/2024 | How a product is registered with the Ministry of Health. Regulation 4 sets the fee at five thousand ringgit per application. Regulation 3 requires a separate application for each variant distinguishable by smell, flavour, size, form, blend, ingredients, manufacturing process or location of manufacture. Regulation 2(2)(b) requires a report of laboratory analysis by an approved laboratory, and regulation 2(2)(c) requires the summary in the prescribed Schedule form. | Verified against the gazette |
| Warning Sign of Prohibition of Smoking Regulations 2024, P.U.(A) 258/2024 | Sets the prohibition sign: minimum 40 cm by 50 cm in a building, 70 per cent white and 30 per cent yellow, the words DILARANG MEROKOK, the jomquit.moh.gov.my line, and a scannable QR code under regulation 2(2). | Verified against the gazette |
| Compounding of Offences Regulations 2024, P.U.(A) 259/2024 | Which offences under the Act may be settled by compound, and how. Gazetted 30 September 2024. | Numbered from the Attorney General's Chambers register for the Act |
| Approved Laboratories Order 2024, P.U.(A) 263/2024 | Names the laboratories whose analysis reports are accepted for product registration. Gazetted 30 September 2024. | Numbered from the Attorney General's Chambers register for the Act |
| Notice Under Section 47 Regulations 2024, P.U.(A) 264/2024 | The form of the enforcement notice served under section 47. Gazetted 30 September 2024. | Numbered from the Attorney General's Chambers register for the Act |
| Appointment of analysts, P.U.(B) 389/2024, P.U.(B) 504/2024 and P.U.(B) 121/2026 | Gazette notifications appointing the analysts who test products under the Act, on 30 September 2024, 13 December 2024 and 30 March 2026. Administrative notices, not new rules. | Listed in the Attorney General's Chambers register for the Act |
Instrument numbers and gazette dates are taken from the Attorney General's Chambers register entry for Act 852, which lists every instrument made under the Act, read on 23 October 2026.
Sources: AGC register, which lists the subsidiary instruments · Skrine alert on the regulations made under the Act · RDS Law Partners on registration, the advertising ban and Part VI duties
A summary of Act 852 labelling requirements containing errors circulates widely. It states that the graphic health warning covers 50% of the pack front. The gazette requires 65% of the front and the back. The same document adds an on-pack ingredients list, an expiry date, a customs hologram, an 18-plus roundel and a ban on food imagery, none of which appear in P.U.(A) 261/2024.
Retailers printing labels using that summary would be printing them wrongly. Work from the gazette, which is linked above.
Grouped by who carries the duty.
Do not smoke or vape in a gazetted non-smoking place. The list runs to 28 categories, including air-conditioned shops, eateries, petrol stations, public transport and shopping complexes.
The Declaration of Non-Smoking Area or Place Order 2024 gazettes 28 categories. The Ministry of Health publishes an official infographic listing all of them, which we reproduce on the retailer page at full resolution.
The rule applies to vaping as it does to smoking. A vaper who assumes the list is about cigarettes can still be compounded.
In October 2026, the Ministry of Health rolled out a platform called MyLapor to enable the public to report on violations concerning smoking or vape products (Ministry of Health statement, reported by The Star, 12 October 2026). These may include:
Source: Ministry of Health InfoSihat, “28 Kawasan atau Tempat Larangan Merokok” · Ministry of Health enforcement FAQ, in Bahasa Malaysia · Ministry of Health media statement, 12 October 2026, reported by The Star, 12 October 2026 and reposted by the National Security Council, 20 October 2026
It regulates it. A ban has been agreed in principle by the Cabinet and pushed for by the Ministry of Health. A general prohibition would ordinarily require its own legislation, and none has passed. Section 21 of the Act separately allows the Minister, on the recommendation of a committee established under section 21(1) and where he is satisfied there is an acute or critical situation, to prohibit or restrict importation, manufacture, distribution or sale by order published in the Gazette. This has not been applied.
The clause barring anyone born on or after 1 January 2007 was in the bill, not in Act 852. It did not survive into law.
Whether nicotine e-liquid is a Poisons List substance was decided by the High Court on 15 May 2026. The Government's appeal was withdrawn on 18 August 2026, so the ruling now stands. Act 852 does not say what this means for retail supply. Read the full explainer.
Business licensing is a state matter. That is why seven states have been able to stop vape sales locally while the Act remains federal law.
These are the primary sources we use.
MOVE, Malaysian Organization of Vape Entity, "Act 852 explained", last reviewed 23 October 2026, move-malaysia.org/act-852.
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