UK Vaping Association Responds to Government Crackdown on Under-18 Vape Sales: Welcome!

According to reports today, on April 10, in response to the UK government’s expected crackdown on the illegal sale of e-cigarettes to children under 18, John Dunne, Director General of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), shared his views.

He said:

The law is very clear—selling e-cigarettes to anyone under 18 is illegal, and doing so is a criminal offense. Therefore, we welcome the government’s expected targeted action on youth vaping, which is clearly designed to cut off the supply of e-cigarettes to minors by rogue sellers. This is an approach we have been calling on the government to adopt for some time, and it is reflected in the detailed proposals we submitted to Parliament at the end of last month.

We are especially pleased that the government has adopted our idea of a nationwide test purchasing scheme, which will help keep a close watch on retailers’ sales activities.

We also commend the initiative to establish an illegal vaping enforcement squad to strengthen trading standards capacity and results in tackling the growing number of illicit products on the market as well as underage sales.

There is no doubt that taking action against those who illegally sell vaping products to children is the way forward. Importantly, this means that any measures to prevent youth vaping must not harm adult smokers who want to quit through vaping devices, or vapers who want to avoid relapsing to smoking. That is precisely the effect a ban on flavored e-cigarettes would have, given that adult smokers and vapers rely on them to break their habit and prevent relapse.

As the UK’s largest vaping industry trade association, we will also contribute to the government’s expected call for evidence, once again emphasizing the proposals we have put forward so far.

Last month, UKVIA launched its tough youth vaping prevention action plan in Parliament. It called for:

Retailers, including owners and directors, to face fines of up to £10,000 if they are found selling products to minors;

A new national retailer registration scheme—under which only retailers meeting strict qualification standards may sell vaping products;

The introduction of the first-ever national test purchasing scheme to continuously monitor retailer sales to minors;

Funds from fines and the retailer registration scheme to be used to support stronger trading standards enforcement.

Last week, a study on flavored e-cigarettes conducted by One Poll and commissioned by UKVIA, surveying 2,000 adult vapers, showed that:

1 in 3 vapers is concerned that a flavored e-cigarette ban would cause them to start smoking again, representing 1.5 million former smokers;

Eight in ten vapers (83%) said flavored e-cigarettes helped them quit smoking;

In addition, we have previously called on the government to adopt our guidelines on child-safe packaging, labeling, and flavor names in future regulations. These are intended to set clear standards for e-liquids, flavor names, and flavor descriptors sold on the UK market. They focus on limiting references to youth culture, removing potentially misleading images and descriptors, explicitly banning cartoons and imagery that appeal to young people, and proportionately restricting flavor names/descriptors that may disproportionately attract underage users.