PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Suzan Burton AU - Fiona Phillips AU - Christina Watts AU - Kelly Kennington AU - Michelle Scollo AU - Kylie Lindorff AU - Sam Egger TI - Who sells tobacco, who stops? A comparison across different tobacco retailing schemes AID - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2019-055561 DP - 2021 Jul 01 TA - Tobacco Control PG - 392--398 VI - 30 IP - 4 4099 - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/30/4/392.short 4100 - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/30/4/392.full SO - Tob Control2021 Jul 01; 30 AB - Background Licensing of tobacco retailers has been proposed as a mechanism to encourage retailers to stop selling tobacco. However, previous studies of tobacco licensing and/or of retailers who have stopped selling have been restricted to one legislative environment. This study examines patterns of tobacco retailing across three legislative environments with three different licensing schemes (an annual fee-based licence, a zero-cost, one-off notification scheme and no notification/licensing scheme).Method A telephone survey was conducted of 2928 potential tobacco retailers who could personally choose whether or not to sell tobacco (rather than the decision being made at a head office).Results Unexpectedly, the annual licence fee to sell tobacco was not significantly associated with a lower rate of selling tobacco or a higher rate of stopping. After allowing for other factors, probability of selling, stopping selling and reported importance of tobacco sales varied across outlet types (p<0.001 for all three outcomes), and according to the remoteness of the retailer (p<0.001, p trend=0.041 and p=0.025 respectively).Conclusion A fee of $A286 was not associated with a lower rate of selling, or a higher rate of stopping. The effect of licensing on retailer numbers will presumably be greater for higher licence fees, but will also depend on the perceived importance of tobacco sales to the retailer. In turn, importance of tobacco sales appears to depend on market factors, including proximity to major urban centres and low-cost competitors. A higher licence fee is likely to have a larger effect on discouraging retailers from selling.Data are available on reasonable request. Deidentified data are available on reasonable request by contacting the first author.