The main purposes of the draft act are to protect human health, particularly the health of minors, including preventing initiation of consumption of tobacco products and alternative products, make these products less attractive, reduce passive smoking or passive consumption of e-cigarettes, and make tobacco products and their alternative products less accessible to minors. The purpose of the draft act is also to reduce and prevent addiction to tobacco products and their alternative products, as well as reduce and prevent related health damage and health risks in Estonian society.

The draft act extends the area of regulation of the act by providing exceptions from requirements, similar to those applying to tobacco products, tobacco-related products or their packaging which a traveller brings in luggage or which are sent from a foreign country to a natural person for non-commercial use. The draft act adds composition and purity requirements for the nicotine-free liquid of electronic cigarettes to the Tobacco Act, and prohibits flavours other than the tobacco flavour in e-cigarettes. The draft act establishes a prohibition on domestic distance selling of tobacco products and tobacco-related products. Provisions on sales promotion in the effective Tobacco Act are also extended to tobacco-related products as well as the prohibition on selling a tobacco-related product in sales packaging which contains another product. In addition, prohibition is established on displaying tobacco products and tobacco-related products and their brands in retail outlets. An exception is made for specialised retail outlets, vessels of international lines and shops located in closed territories of airports and ports. Unless the person is clearly an adult or known to the seller, the seller must request a document from a buyer when purchasing a tobacco product or a tobacco-related product. The draft act gives the Tax and Customs Office the right to perform test purchases to identify the sale of illegal tobacco products. A similar right is also given to police officers to identify sales of tobacco products or tobacco-related products to minors, together with the right to involve persons at the minimum age of 16 years in the performance of test purchases. The draft act extends the current prohibitions and restrictions applicable only to smoking also to the consumption of an electronic cigarette. Under the draft act, the obligation to submit a notice of economic activities also applies to undertakings engaged in the sale of tobacco-related products. The draft act also extends the provisions on liability, proceeding from the extended requirements for tobacco products, to electronic cigarettes and other tobacco-related products. In addition, certain references (related to legislative drafting) to the implementing acts of Directive 2014/40/EU that have entered into force, are added to the draft act, and, for legal clarity purposes, the date for rotating the combined health warnings is specified. In 2017 this date is 20 May and will be 1 January from 2018.