In May 2017 the Tobacco Products Directive will come into force. This regulation was created in the EU parliament by un-elected officials, voted through by MEP’s and coincided with a massive increase in lobbying spend by tobacco and pharmaceutical industries. However as this was enacted into UK law in May 2016 the recent Brexit vote to leave the EU will not effect this current legislation, only a repeal of the law in UK parliament would change the current situation.
UK Vaping Laws 2017
Maximum refill containers can not exceed 10ml.
Aside from the increase of environmental waste from all these extra plastic bottles, this will increase e liquid cost as packaging makes up a significant part of the cost of production.
Maximum nicotine strength of 20mg.
A blow to new users who are coming from a heavy smoking habit, 24mg was a common strength to help initially kick the cigarettes. The biggest effect will be on the DIY market, where high strength nicotine concentrate of up to 72mg/L was commonly used to mix your own juice. No “end consumer” can purchase nicotine base liquid in strength over 20mg/L and bottle size over 10ml.
Maximum tank capacity of 2ml.
Say goodbye to a lot of the high performance and “sub ohm” vaping tanks and a massive reduction of product choice. Expect only a few compliant tanks to be available and to be refilling them much more often.
Product approvals, Packaging requirements, customer notifications and data reporting.
Some of this is welcomed by the industry to increase quality control and safety, however much of this is already done voluntarily by reputable retailers and manufacturers. Costly product registration for each and every product variation (each variation of strength and flavour) will massively reduce e liquid choice and new flavours brought to market. Extra business costs for compliance will ultimately lead to increased cost of products for the consumer.