21 U.S.C. § 387m — Equal treatment of retail outlets

This section requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to write regulations covering a specific kind of retailer: any retail establishment where selling tobacco products is the predominant, or main, part of the business — sometimes called a tobacco shop or smoke shop. The regulations must require these establishments to comply with the same advertising restrictions that already apply to ordinary retail establishments that people under the age of 18 are allowed to enter. In other words, a store cannot escape the usual limits on tobacco advertising just because tobacco sales make up most of what it sells. The section does not itself spell out what those advertising restrictions are; it only requires that tobacco-focused retail outlets be held to the same advertising standard as any other retail outlet accessible to minors.