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

030(A) makes it unlawful to operate a tobacco product retailer in the city without first obtaining and maintaining a valid tobacco product retailer permit for each location where that activity occurs. 020 sweep broadly: a tobacco product retailer includes a smoke shop, electronic cigarette retailer, or vapor cigarette retailer, defined as any establishment devoting 10 percent or more of its floor space or display area to the sale, display, marketing, bartering, trading, or exchange of tobacco products, tobacco paraphernalia, or vapor devices. 030(B) folds state and federal law into local enforcement: it is a violation of the chapter itself for a permittee or their agents to violate any local, state, or federal law applicable to tobacco products or retailing, and smoking on the premises is allowed only in accordance with state law.

030(C) imposes a storefront visibility rule aimed at curbing loitering and illicit activity: window tinting cannot exceed twenty percent opacity, and painted signs cannot cover more than twenty-five percent of any window pane, with existing businesses given ninety days from the chapter's adoption to remove noncompliant tinting. 020 as the department responsible for administering the chapter.