Mount Prospect, IL Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Article VIII of Chapter 11 sets two license tracks. Section 11.801 covers selling, giving away, delivering, or possessing with intent to sell or give away any tobacco and related products, and defines tobacco products to include electronic nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarettes, vapes and e-cigars. Tobacco lounges, tobacco shops, vape lounges and vape shops, as defined in Section 14.2401 of the zoning code, need a tobacco establishment license. Accessory sellers need a tobacco sales license in conjunction with a valid Class I or Class II business license.

Appendix A sets the establishment fee at $250.00 for the first year and $100.00 annually after. The tobacco sales license costs $50.00 annually, and its application goes in writing to the Director of Community Development or a designee under Section 11.802.1. An establishment application under Section 11.802 is filed under oath with the Department of Community Development. The building inspector and health inspector each inspect within thirty days, and the Police Department runs a criminal record check with fingerprints at the applicant's cost. The applicant must be at least twenty one, supply three character references, and disclose any fines or suspensions from FDA Tobacco Compliance Checks. Section 11.803 requires denial where the proposed operation would not comply with building, zoning and health regulations, or where the applicant had a tobacco or similar license denied, revoked or suspended within five years.

Sales rules follow. Tobacco products stay behind a counter in an area restricted to the licensee and employees (Section 11.803.1). No sale or delivery to anyone under twenty one (11.804), and a photo identification showing date of birth is required for anyone under twenty seven (11.806). Signs of at least eight and one-half by eleven inches go within one foot of every display and at each point of purchase (11.805). Vending machines and self-service displays are banned (11.808). Delivery on any right-of-way, playground, park, or property of the Village, a school district, a park district or a public library is unlawful (11.807), and home delivery requires a consent form on file and face to face handoff to someone twenty one or older (11.807.1). A sale, transfer or relocation voids an establishment license (11.813).