Despite a surge in incidents of retailers illegally selling vapes to minors, a staggering number of businesses are escaping with minimal consequences.
A new report compiled by Vape Club has researched the extent of the problem by gathering data from Freedom of Information requests to 138 local authorities on the number of reports of underage vape sales, test purchases for underage vape sales, retailers caught selling to underage persons and warnings, fines or penalties issued to rogue traders.
The 2024 Underage Vape Sales Report reveals that two unscrupulous retailers were caught selling vapes to minors every day last year. However, a shocking three out of five confirmed cases resulted in no fines being issued.
Businesses that were fined for their offenses were slapped with penalties of around £400 – a mere fraction of the current maximum fine of £2,500.
This disparity has allowed rogue retailers to operate with impunity, putting the health and well-being of young people at risk.
The report calculates that the government missed out on over £1.7 million in potential revenue due to the failure to impose maximum fines.
The total fines levied for underage vape sales across the UK in 2023 amounted to just £126,000.
The findings highlight the urgent need for stricter measures to deter retailers from selling vapes to minors.
Experts are calling on the government to introduce a Vape Retailer and Distributor Licensing framework to ensure that only responsible businesses are allowed to operate in the market.
Dan Marchant, Director of the UK’s largest vaping retailer, Vape Club, says:
“Reputable sellers have safeguards in place to ensure that children can’t buy vaping products. For instance, we conduct full digital age verification on every customer before we allow an order to go out the door.
“We are really encouraged to see that from ASH’s recent report the uptake in youth vaping has stabilised and we aren’t seeing an upward trend in teenagers trying vapes. What we have identified is the rising number in businesses selling to teens being caught. However, what we want to stress from our findings is that these deterrents and fines are not harsh enough.”
While the report notes a 69% increase in fines handed out by local authorities in the past year, the overall level of penalties remains too low to serve as a deterrent.
Dan Marchant explains:
“The best deterrent for any crime is the likelihood of being caught and right now that is incredibly low, and rogue retailers are taking full advantage of this. Currently, the maximum fine that can be handed out is £2,500 but in reality, the fines given out are much, much lower.”
The report also highlights the challenges faced by Trading Standards officers, who often have limited resources to investigate and prosecute cases of underage vape sales.
The revived Tobacco and Vapes bill proposes enabling trading standards in England and Wales to hand out £100 on-the-spot fines to illicit traders. However, experts suggest that these on-the-spot fines should be significantly higher to be a real deterrent.
Dan Marchant added:
“We’re aware of the difficult job Trading Standards have to do with limited resources and completely welcome the move for them to issue on-the-spot fines as long as it’s not a substitute for fining the business a significant sum. To help solve this issue, we want to see maximum fines increased to at least £10,000 for businesses and increase the fine for repeat offenders.”
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