By Timothy S. Donahue

Top Takeaways:

• Azerbaijan’s parliament approved a first-reading bill banning all electronic cigarettes and their components.
• The draft law classifies nicotine-containing e-cigarettes as tobacco products but excludes heated tobacco products.
• If fully adopted, the ban would take effect Feb. 1, 2026.

Azerbaijan’s Milli Majlis has approved, in the first reading, draft legislation that would ban the import, export, production, storage, wholesale and retail sale, and use of e-cigarettes and their components.

The bill was debated during a plenary session as part of proposed amendments to the Law on Tobacco and Tobacco Products. Under the draft, nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes would be explicitly classified as tobacco products, thereby bringing them within Azerbaijan’s tobacco control regime.

The legislation defines an e-cigarette as a product intended to deliver nicotine-containing or nicotine-free vapor into the human body through the respiratory tract, used with a device that includes a mouthpiece or other components, such as cartridges and containers, whether disposable or refillable, according to media reports.

At the same time, the bill makes a clear legal distinction between electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products. Heated tobacco products are defined as products that contain tobacco and non-tobacco components, deliver nicotine-containing aerosol through heating without combustion, and do not produce tobacco smoke. They are not classified as e-cigarettes under the draft law.

Lawmakers said the introduction and clarification of these definitions are intended to enable more precise legal classification and differentiation of tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products, and to support consistent enforcement.

Parallel amendments are also proposed to Azerbaijan’s Tax Code and the Law on Advertising. These changes would remove disposable electronic cigarettes and e-liquids from the list of excisable goods, eliminate the corresponding excise tax rates, and align advertising restrictions with the revised product definitions and prohibitions.

If adopted in subsequent readings and signed into law, the legislation would take effect on Feb. 1, 2026. The bill must still undergo additional parliamentary readings before final approval.