Airport duty-free stores accused of violating anti-smoking law

Yau Sea-wain, president of the John Tung Foundation, said a total of nine cigarette products sold at the stores have been found to violate the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act, which can lead to total fines of up to NT$145 million.

In four of the cases, the sellers deliberately downplayed the warning messages, and in the other five cases, there were descriptions obviously intended to advertise for the products, Yau said.

He said although each in-bound adult traveler is currently only allowed to bring in one carton of duty-free cigarettes, the stores allegedly have encouraged travelers to buy more.

According to an informer, identified by his surname as Chang, he usually could purchase four to six cartons at a time, and he once bought 10 cartons.

The salespeople at the stores would teach consumers how to hide the cigarettes, but do not tell consumers this is illegal, Chang said.

The Bureau of Health Promotion under the Department of Health said it has received a formal complaint from the John Tung Foundation and has launched an investigation into the situation.

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