UK market turmoil? Allocate 3 million yuan to set up a law enforcement team, focusing on one-time rectification

UK market turmoil? Allocate 3 million yuan to set up a law enforcement team, focusing on one-time rectification

According to British media news, as public health officials are increasingly concerned about the surge in underage e-cigarette use, the British government is studying whether to ban flavored disposable e-cigarettes, and recently announced that it will allocate 3 million pounds from the Ministry of Health. Support the creation of an "Illegal Vaping Enforcement Team" to crack down on retailers who sell vaping products to minors.

Specifically, the "Illegal Electronic Cigarette Enforcement Team" will be a law enforcement team composed of officials related to trade standards to investigate and ban retailers such as convenience stores and electronic cigarette shops in England that sell electronic cigarettes to minors under the age of 18 through trial purchases. .

Health Secretary Neil O'Brien will formally announce its creation and explain it at a policy exchange meeting on Tuesday. O'Brien said the data collected by the law enforcement team will be used as the basis for the British government to formulate measures to reduce the rate of underage e-cigarette use. At the same time, the health department will also focus on the marketing and promotion of e-cigarettes and the environmental pollution caused by one-time use.

When the British "Financial Times" reported on this incident, it mentioned a number of Chinese disposable brands; at the same time, according to a previous report from the "Financial Times", the top ten sales of disposable e-cigarettes in the UK as of January 2023 It shows that among the top five brands, Chinese brands occupy four seats.
According to data from the Financial Times based on NielsenIQ, 138 million disposable e-cigarettes will be sold in the UK in 2022, and the number of minors aged 11 to 17 who use e-cigarettes in the UK will more than double in 2022. From 3.3% in 2021 to 7%. Mainstream public opinion in the UK attributes the rise in underage e-cigarette use to the rapid growth of disposable e-cigarettes in the UK market

Regarding this decision, Deborah Arnold, CEO of the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), expressed great pleasure that the UK has finally announced funding support for law enforcement to address the harm caused by the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. At the same time, he also suggested adding more "more obvious measures", including but not limited to taxing disposable e-cigarettes to make their retail prices exceed the ability of minors to pay, and introducing outer packaging without decorative designs .

However, the British Electronic Cigarette Industry Association stated that the solution should be to strengthen the enforcement of electronic cigarette retailers strictly based on existing laws, rather than focusing on electronic cigarette packaging.