Recently, vape stores in the UK are seeing visits from Council and Police members in a surge to crackdown on illegal vape products. Up and down the country some vape stores are finding themselves missing thousands of pounds worth of goods. This is due to some vape stores selling products that are illegal by UK trading standards. Which has left a few store owners with fines to pay and lessons to be learnt.
Stores around the UK cleared of illegal vape products
Vaping has reached all-time high popularity in the UK with new products added to the market around the clock. Especially with the rise in disposable vape devices, the market has certainly seen an explosion of interest from brands looking to add their own disposables. To keep up with demand shelves are being heavily stocked with the products that consumers are looking for. But in the midst of the rush it’s easy for non-compliant products to slip through.
In the UK there have been numerous cases of vapers using illegal and sometimes counterfeit products. Not only is this harmful to customers but also to brands of counterfeited products, stores that sell them unknowingly and the vaping industry as a whole.
Only recently, a vape store on Oxford Street, Westminster, was cleared of £100,000 worth of items from their shelves. These counterfeit and illegal goods were removed by Met Police and Westminster City Council with a variety of these products pertaining to vapes. These were disposables that were counterfeit along with products not suitable for UK retail due to not meeting compliance requirements.
What are the legal requirements for selling in the UK?
If products are TPD/TRPR compliant there will be several key factors that you can easily look out for.
- Disposables and vape kits will have a max capacity tank of 2ml.
- The max strength nicotine allowed in the UK is 20mg/ml.
- Packaging should include UK manufacturer’s contact details and name.
- Packaging should include all necessary warnings.
- Must be registered on the MHRA’s (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) website.
For the full list of regulations, you can read the UKVIA’s (United Kingdom Vaping Industry Association) concise guide for compliant disposable vapes here.
How you can be careful when selling vape products
Avoiding illegal and counterfeit products means you avoid potential losses and fines. The biggest issue in the UK vaping market is certainly high strength vapes or those with bigger capacity than is legally allowed. If a product is more than 20mg/ml (2%) or has a capacity greater than 2ml, then it cannot be legally sold in the UK. Check out these top tips on how to sell vapes legally in the UK.
Restrictions and regulations across the globe differ meaning that it’s quite easy for higher strength vape products to exist legally. For example, for products in the UAE the max capacity of vape tanks is no more than 10ml. Although these are legal for sale in the UAE, they are not in the UK, and sometimes this confusion can lead to incorrect products being stocked on shelves.
Compliance made easy with Xyfil
Navigating compliance can be challenging with the many regulations and differences between countries. Here at Xyfil we have a dedicated compliance team that ensure our brands and the brands of our partners, are compliant with whatever market they wish to sell in. If you’re looking to create your own UK-compliant brand of E-Liquids and vape products, you can contact us to find out more, and make the most of our award-winning, premium products. If you’re looking to stock the products we manufacture, you can talk with our sister company My Vapery who can offer you premium, UK-compliant products that customers want.