Cupertino, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

50 of the Cupertino Municipal Code regulates tobacco retailing citywide, defining Electronic Cigarette Products broadly to include e-cigarettes, e-cigars, e-pipes, vape pens, e-hookahs, their components, and any nicotine-containing liquid, whether sold alone or with a device. 020, before selling any tobacco product at a location, and mandates posted notices, ID checks, and limits on storefront tobacco advertising to fifteen percent of window space. But the same section separately and unconditionally prohibits electronic cigarette sales: no person, permitted or not, may sell or distribute Electronic Cigarette Products in Cupertino.

040 reinforces that permits may only authorize retailing from a fixed storefront location, never from vehicles, persons, flea markets, farmers' markets, or pharmacies, and bars new tobacco retail permits within one thousand feet of a school or five hundred feet of another retailer, with narrow grandfathering for retailers permitted before July 1, 2020. Because the electronic cigarette ban applies regardless of permit status, a business cannot cure a vape-sales violation by obtaining a Tobacco Retailer Permit; the permit only ever covers combustible and other non-electronic tobacco products that satisfy the chapter's location, signage, and age-verification rules.