UK Vaping Industry Association will no longer accept tobacco companies as members

According to a report by UK media Convenience Store on September 1, the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) announced that it will no longer include British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International, and Philip Morris International as members.

According to UKVIA's statement, the association will no longer accept any tobacco companies as members and will reject membership applications from e-cigarette companies that are wholly or partially owned or acquired by tobacco companies.

The trade organization believes that "the association's independence from any participation or funding from tobacco company-owned e-cigarette brands will be more beneficial to the interests of the industry."

The association aims to eliminate the "misunderstanding" that it is primarily funded by tobacco companies and to overcome the limitations that tobacco companies may face when interacting with key stakeholders to achieve smoke-free goals.

"By representing only businesses that are solely focused on vaping, many of which are independent companies founded due to personal losses from family members caused by smoking combustible cigarettes, UKVIA hopes to fully cooperate with key stakeholders who share the same vision of making smoking history. The association believes this is an important step to ensure that the public health potential of vaping is fully realized and that the industry makes the maximum contribution to achieving smoke-free goals in the coming years, until 2030."

A British American Tobacco spokesperson stated, "BAT has been a member of UKVIA since its inception and recognizes the important role the association has played in promoting the benefits of vaping. BAT is no longer a member of UKVIA but remains committed to providing smokers with the widest range of reduced-risk products and encouraging them to switch."

Oliver Kutz, General Manager of Imperial Brands in the UK and Ireland, added, "We are proud of our contributions to UKVIA over the past seven years. As one of the founding members of UKVIA, we helped establish a strong voice in the field advocating for the comprehensive promotion of the vaping category in the UK."

"In addition to UKVIA membership, we will continue to call on the government and enforcement agencies to work with the industry to improve safety and quality standards in the field to eliminate irresponsible participants and enhance trust in this important product category. As we recently stated in our call to the UK government regarding evidence on youth vaping, we hope to see a series of measures taken to ensure that vaping products are only available to adult smokers and adult vapers, not children."

"These proposals involve product quality, flavor and naming regulations to limit factors that attract young people, strengthening online advertising regulations, and an important retailer licensing program that can also support local governments in addressing non-compliance issues."