De Pere, WI Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Sec. 110-4 sets up De Pere's cigarette license: the sale and license of cigarettes is governed under Wis. 65, and the license fee for the sale of tobacco products is set by resolution of the common council rather than fixed in the code itself. Sec. 8-3(c) layers city-specific rules on top of that state framework. It first adopts Wis. 66, the state's restrictions on sale or gift of cigarettes and nicotine or tobacco products, by reference. It then adds two rules found nowhere in state law: no person may sell single cigarettes, described in the code as "loosies," whether packaged or unpackaged, and no person may give away or otherwise distribute cigarettes, tobacco products, or vapor products free of charge.

Retailers must also verify age before any vapor product sale, either by checking a government photo ID or, for internet and remote sales, running a third-party age verification check against a commercial database, under Sec. 8-3(b)(3). Any violation of Sec. 8-3 is subject to a forfeiture set by council resolution, and each day a violation continues is treated as a separate offense, which means an uncorrected loosie-sale or free-sample violation can compound daily until the retailer stops. Minors are separately barred from purchasing, possessing or using tobacco and vapor products under Sec. 8-3(b), reinforcing the retailer-side sale restrictions with a parallel duty on the buyer.