FEATURE
WHY REPUTABLE VAPE BUSINESSES
COULD FACE CLOSURE
POORLY WRITTEN LEGISLATION IS NOT JUST HARMING OUR BUSINESSES, BUT ALSO
HAVING AN EFFECT ON CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IN VAPING – IBVTA
BY LEO FORFAR
Unscrupulous vape companies are being allowed to operate “outside
the law” because UK regulators fail to enforce the law, the IBVTA
has warned.
Exactly one year after the Tobacco and Related Product Regulations
(TRPR) came into force, the industry body says that many vape
businesses are getting away with selling non-compliant products.
In its ‘State of Compliance’ report, IBVTA chairman Fraser Cropper
says: “Far too many local trading standards officers are making
no attempt to enforce these regulations at a local level. As a direct
consequence of this leniency and inaction, reputable businesses
are suffering, with IBVTA members’ sales down an average of 24
percent since May 2017. This is totally unacceptable.”
Mr Cropper added: “A significant number of businesses are still
choosing not to comply with these regulations. This would not be so
much of a problem if the MHRA enforced deadlines and Trading
Standards ensured that all businesses in their local area were
compliant. Sadly, this is not the case. The MHRA has been overly
lenient with companies who should have supplied them with
notifications a year ago. At the same time, as this report makes
clear, far too many local trading standards officers are making no
attempt to enforce these regulations at a local level.
We hope this report will act as a wake-up call to local and national
politicians and that action will be taken. If not, reputable businesses
will close and the only beneficiaries will be the tobacco industry,
and companies operating outside of the law.”
The 28-page report maps the state of compliance and enforcement
across the whole of the UK. It showed that in some parts of the
country, Trading Standards were doing their job but in many other
parts of the UK, they were not.
To compile the report, the IBVTA sent Freedom of Information (FOI)
requests to every council in the UK with a Trading Standards
department asking what action had been taken to deal with non-
compliance under the TRPR.
The report describes the present situation as a “perfect storm
of disproportionate regulation, Trading Standards inaction, and
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