Nassau County, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Chapter 19¼, Article III, adopted by Ord. No. 2014-004 as the E-Cigarette Sales and Use ordinance, regulates retail sale of e-cigarettes and liquid nicotine countywide rather than creating a separate county vape-retailer license. Section 19¼-79 makes it prohibited for any person to sell or offer for sale e-cigarettes or liquid nicotine within the county to a person under eighteen years of age. Section 19¼-81 bars self-service merchandising outright: no retailer may sell, offer, or display e-cigarettes or liquid nicotine by means of self-service merchandising, and any open display unit, meaning any case, rack, shelf, counter, table, kiosk, booth or stand holding the product, must sit somewhere customers cannot reach without a clerk's help.

The board adopted these rules in 2014 on findings that flavored e-cigarette cartridges act as training wheels for traditional cigarettes among minors and that the FDA had found carcinogens and toxic chemicals like diethylene glycol in tested products. The definitions section, § 19¼-78, sweeps in devices marketed as e-cigarettes, e-cigars or e-pipes regardless of product name, so the sale and display restrictions apply to any nicotine-vapor device sold at retail in the county, not just cigarette-shaped units.