Smoking product supplier licensing scheme

Retail (liquor) licence

A retail (liquor) licence authorises you to sell smoking products to the public from a liquor licensed premises. Only a liquor licensee may apply for a retail (liquor) licence. A copy of your liquor licence for the premises is required as part of the application process.

If you want to sell smoking products from more than 1 liquor licensed premises, you must apply and obtain a licence for each premises.

A retail (liquor) licence limits the supply of smoking products from the liquor licensed premises. Online supply of smoking products is not permitted.

Wholesale licence

A wholesale licence authorises you to sell smoking products by wholesale to licensed retailers from a wholesale premises or an online wholesale outlet.

If you want to sell smoking products from more than 1 wholesale premises, you must submit a separate application and hold a licence for each premises. Where your wholesale premises has an online outlet for online sales connected to the wholesale premises, a single wholesale licence authorises you to sell smoking products from both.

Duration of licence

A smoking product supplier licence will take effect on the day stated on the licence and be valid for 12 months.

If you are a corporation with multiple licences, you can choose to have all your licences renew on the same day. Any new licence application at a later date will then be aligned with your existing licences. You can do this by selecting to group your licence renewals when you submit your first application.

In this instance where a new licence is to be grouped to align with an existing licence renewal date, the licence will be granted for a period less than 12 months and the amount payable will be adjusted pro-rata.

Renewal

You must submit your smoking product supplier licence renewals online through the Public Health Connect portal before its expiry date.

A reminder about its expiry will be issued within 28 days before the date it expires. It is your responsibility to ensure your licence remains current.

If a reminder notice is not received, you can still apply to renew your licence online within the 28-day period.

Licence fees

The retail and wholesale licence fees are set using the Queensland Government fee unit. From 1 July 2023, the fee unit was priced at $1.06. Based on this fee unit price, the licence fees are:

Retail (liquor) licence applications will not incur a fee.

*Note: The fee unit value is reviewed each financial year and updated to reflect indexation. The dollar amount may change after 30 June 2025.

For more information about fees, see:

• section 2 of the Acts Interpretation (Fee Unit) Regulation 2022
• section 48B of the Acts Interpretation Act 1954
• Queensland Treasury's principles for fees and charges.

Licence display requirements

You must display an approved copy of your licence at the retail or wholesale outlet so that it can be easily read by customers at all times that your business is open. An approved copy of your licence must also be displayed on the website if you have an online shop.

An approved copy of your licence must either be a full copy of your granted licence or an extract from the licence that contains the following information:

• the type of licence you hold:
  • 'Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act 1998 retail licence'
  • 'Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act 1998 retail licence (liquor)'
  • 'Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act 1998 wholesale licence'.
• the unique identification number of the licence
• a link or QR code to the public register of all retail licences and wholesale licences.
  Link: https://www.health.qld.gov.au/smoking-supplier
  QR code:
  

An approved copy of your licence must also:

• be in black on a white background
• not contain any additional symbols, images or words to those contained in a licence granted under the Act that imply the sale of smoking products is promoted by the State
• fit an A4 page if displayed at a retail or wholesale outlet.

View the licence examples:

• retail licence (liquor) (JPG, 54KB)
• retail licence (JPG, 56KB)
• wholesale licence (JPG, 54KB).

Obligations for licensees

As a licensee it is important to understand your obligations within the Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act 1998 (Qld) (the Act) and give notice to the Chief Executive, Queensland Health within 14 days of any of these circumstances occurring:

• the licensee is convicted of any of the offences listed in section 46 of the Act
• if the licensee is an individual – the licensee is an insolvent under administration under section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cwlth); or the licensee is disqualified from managing corporations under part 2D.6 of the Corporations Act.
• an executor, administrator or trustee becomes the licensee under section 44 or 45 of the Act
• if the licensee is a corporation – the corporation is placed into administration, receivership, or liquidation; or there is a change of directors for the corporation
• if the licensee sells smoking products at liquor licensed premises – the liquor licence for the premises is suspended, cancelled, or otherwise ceases to have effect
• there is a change in the ownership of the business for the retail or wholesale licence
• the premises for a retail or wholesale outlet of the licensee changes
• the name, or business name, of the licensee changes.

Refer to the Act for more information.

Notifications of the above obligations can be made through the Notifications tab on your Public Health Connect account.

Change of ownership – surrendering your licence

If the ownership of your business is changing, note that the smoking products supplier licence is not transferrable. The new owner will need to apply for, and be granted, a licence for the business to continue to sell smoking products.

To surrender your smoking product supplier licence, complete the Notice to surrender licence form, and email to TOSPA_licensing@health.qld.gov.au.

Additional obligations for wholesalers and retailers with a sub-wholesale condition

You must also comply with following obligations if you hold a smoking product supplier wholesale licence or a retail licence with a sub-wholesale condition.

• You must not sell a smoking product to a retailer unless the retailer holds a smoking product supplier retail licence. Ensure your employees are aware of this.
• Check the retailer you are supplying holds a current smoking product supplier retailer licence. You can do this by either:
  • searching their licence number, name/suburb or web address in the Public register of smoking product supplier licence holders
  • using an application programming interface (API) to integrate the Public register of smoking product supplier licence holders with your existing software. If you need access to the API, complete the request for access online form – a Queensland Health officer will contact you to discuss your request.
• You must give retailers an invoice for the wholesale of smoking products in the required format. The invoice must be in English with the following details clearly visible:
  • unique identifier for the invoice
  • date of the supply of the smoking product
  • brand name, type, variant and quantity of the smoking product
  • business names, contact details (name/address/email address), and ABN/ACN of the retailer being supplied
  • your business names, contact details (name/address/email address), and ABN/ACN.
• You may be required to provide the following information to the Chief Executive, Queensland Health for each retailer you have supplied smoking products to:
  • name of the supplier or if a supplier trades under a business name, that business name
  • address of the supplier's retail outlet
  • website address of the supplier's online shop
  • supplier's postal address, phone number, fax number and/or email address
  • chemical composition of the smoking products supplied
  • number, type or quantity of smoking products supplied.

For more information, refer to the Act.

Public register

The Public register of smoking product supplier licence holders provides licence details for retail or wholesale outlets including the licence number, business name and address, licence expiry date and any conditions on the licence.

Contacts

For information about the smoking laws including the smoking product supplier licencing scheme, phone 13QGOV (13 7468).

For enquires about a licence application or notification regarding a licence, email TOSPA_licensing@health.qld.gov.au.