Mexico top court rules e-cigarette sales should be allowed

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Supreme Court has upheld a challenge to the country’s tobacco law for making it hard to sell e-cigarettes.

Current law allows regulated sales of tobacco products, while at the same time it outlaws “selling, distributing, exhibiting, producing or promoting any object that does not contain tobacco” but whose packaging or design “might identify it with tobacco products.”

The court ruled the law is unconstitutional, saying it violates the rule of fair treatment. The court said Wednesday that sales of e-cigarettes and similar products should be allowed “under the same conditions as products containing tobacco.”

For now, the ruling does not set a nationwide precedent. It applies only to the parties who filed the appeal.