Last updated: April 1, 2025
Duties / Penalties
Business Owners / Employers / Supervisors
Post signs
The proprietor or occupier of any non-smoking place or areas must display a no-smoking sign. Any person who violates this duty is subject to a fine up to five thousand ringgit.
The law aligns with FCTC Art. 8 and the FCTC Art. 8 Guidelines with respect to the duty to post signs. To more fully align, the law should provide for increasing fines for repeat violations.
Remove ashtrays
The law imposes a duty on proprietors and occupiers to “not provide any smoking equipment or facilities or any method intended to encourage any person to smoke.” This includes not providing ashtrays. Any person who violates this duty is subject to a fine up to five thousand ringgit.
The law aligns with FCTC Art. 8 and the FCTC Art. 8 Guidelines with respect to the duty to post signs. To more fully align, the law should provide for increasing fines for repeat violations.
Steps to require a person to stop smoking (e.g., warn, discontinue service, call authorities)
The law imposes a duty on proprietors and occupiers to take all reasonable measures to prevent any person from smoking in a building, vehicle, place or area. Any person who violates this duty is subject to a fine up to five thousand ringgit.
The law imposes the same fine on persons who smoke in no-smoking areas as on business owners/operators who do not take steps to stop a person from smoking. The FCTC Art. 8 Guidelines state that “penalties should be sufficiently large to deter violations or else they may be ignored by violators or treated as mere costs of doing business. Larger penalties are required to deter business violators than to deter violations by individual smokers, who usually have fewer resources.” Therefore, to align with FCTC Art. 8 and the FCTC Art. 8 Guidelines, the drafters should consider imposing higher fines on business owners who do not take steps to prevent smoking on premises than on smokers who smoke in no-smoking areas. In addition, the law should provide for increased penalties for repeat violations.
Not to smoke where prohibited
Any person who smokes where smoking is prohibited is subject to a fine not exceeding five thousand ringgit.
The law aligns with FCTC Art. 8 and the FCTC Art. 8 Guidelines with respect to the duty to not smoke where prohibited. To more fully align, the law should provide for increasing fines for repeated violations.
