TPD (Tobacco Products Directive) What it means to Vapers.
2016, sees the introduction of the Tobacco Products Directive throughout Europe. These new rules will affect the sale and use of tobacco and tobacco-related products, including e-cigarettes, in Uk & Europe. From what ever side of the fence your on?
So what this means to you as a vaper?
OVERVIEW:
TPD is basically a package of regulations set out by the EU commission regarding the sale of anything tobacco.
Yes I know you are not interested in anything tobacco but one part of the directive is (Article 20) which is mainly addresses the sale and use of electronic cigarettes/vaping equipment.
Throughout the Directive there are many stipulations regarding electronic vaping devices and these provisions will where transferred into law on 20th May 2016.
Each member state or country will interpret the law as they see it and can add additional legislation as they see fit.
Products for sale in your local vape shop today can still be sold until 20th May 2017 Then be removed from sale and new and existing products to the market wil have to be compliant by 20th November 2016.
NOTE: Various stipulations concerning the TPD are still subject to change.
SALES AND TAX:
E-cigs are a consumer product and so must comply with all relevant safety legislation as with all consumer goods (CE, RoHS etc)
In the UK for example sales of e cigs to under 18’s is already prohibited since 1st Oct 2015. N Ireland and Republic will probably follow suit. New Age Smoke has already taken this on board and restrict the sale of our products to anyone under the age.
Tax is expected to remain covered by VAT in the UK with no additions.
Certain forms of advertising and the promotion of vaping products are prohibited in the EU.
PRODUCT RESTRICTIONS:
E-liquid will only be allowed to be sold in 10ml bottles and will have to carry TPD compliant labelling and health warnings.
E-liquid bottles will have to be sold in child resistant and tamper evident bottles.
CHANGES TO THE MARKET:
New products entering the market after the TPD dates stipulated will have to be notified to the national government 6 months in advance, before they can be legally sold to the consumer.
These notifications must include lists of ingredients, toxicological data, and data on the emissions from the products.
These kinds of tests will be costly for manufacturers and coupled with the 6 month notification period, will considerably slow down the rate that new products are released. We foresee that many smaller manufacturers will reduce their product lines in order to be able to meet these costs.
All of the above will drastically slow down innovations within the industry because of the expense of producing the data.
The high costs of its production will most likely be too expensive for the smaller vendor to afford.
What is New Age Smoke doing?:
We are at present doing all that can in order to be compliant with the regulations.
We are investing considerable resources in the necessary testing and re-labeling of products in conjunction with our suppliers, and will be updating our customers with any changes we may need to make in the future.
All our products come from OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) sources and our web site has direct links to the authenticity of our products.
Labelling and compliance is of the up most importance to us and you our customer.
We keep in touch with our suppliers daily and we are pushing hard to be compliant before the deadlines.
Through our membership of the http://www.ivva.ie IRISH VAPING VENDORS ASSOCIATION
The association keeps us up to date with all changes and our joint experience helps us to grow.
We thank you for your continued custom and support as that support will be important to us in the coming year as we make the necessary changes our business.
