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

Flagler County Code Sec. 19-2, adopted by Ord. No. 01-15 in 2001, is titled 'Merchandising of tobacco products' and is expressly intended to prevent the sale or delivery of tobacco products to anyone under eighteen by controlling how retailers place and market those products, not by creating a county tobacco retail license. Retail tobacco dealers themselves are licensed by the state under Chapter 569, Florida Statutes, and Sec. 19-2 says nothing in it should be read to prohibit sales that are otherwise lawful or regulated under that chapter.

The operative rule: no vendor, person, or entity may sell, offer for sale, or place tobacco products in an open display unit, defined as any case, rack, shelf, counter, table, desk, kiosk, booth, stand, or similar surface giving customers direct access without a vendor's help, unless that unit sits in a restricted access area that the vendor has physically confined and limited to vendor access. Two categories are carved out: establishments that bar anyone under eighteen from the premises entirely, and specialty tobacco stores, defined as establishments primarily in the business of selling cigars and pipe tobacco.

A violation is subject to the civil penalty and enforcement procedures set out in Chapter 9 of the county code, and can also be prosecuted as an ordinance violation under Sec. 1-6. By its own terms in subsection (f), this section applies only to the unincorporated areas of Flagler County; it has no reach inside Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, Beverly Beach, Marineland, or Bunnell.