How the TPD has effected the vaping industry in the United Kingdom

We first heard about the new TPD (Tobacco Products Directive) announced in February 2016 that affect all vaporizer products–from vape pens to dry herb vaporizers.

We, like many vaping enthusiasts, were extremely worried about what this would actually change on the ground.

Almost eighteen months later it seems clear that the TPD has changed very little for the vaping consumer and if anything, seems to have had a positive effect on the quality of goods.

A restriction was put in place that the maximum volume of an E-Liquid bottle for sale could be no more than 10ml.

This at first, was one of our main worries when we heard about the introduction of the TPD, limiting the size of E-Liquid bottles surely limits the amount of product that we can consume.

However, in reality, this law has had absolutely no effect whatsoever as no limit was placed on the number of bottles one can buy, so if you used to buy one 20ml bottle of E-Liquid, now you simply buy two 10ml bottles and you’re good to go.

Vape liquid companies are most affected by these changes, they are left with a ton of unsellable oversized cartridges, e-liquid bottles and tanks.

The next restriction in place is that restricting the maximum nicotine strength of no more than 20ml.

Once again, it goes back to those e-liquid companies where they have to do all the adjustment to their oils and are left with an endless amount of unsellable e-liquid.

Whilst this seems like a clear restriction, the truth is that very few consumers will actually take notice to this.

Once again, the number of bottles one can actually buy is not restricted and so if you want a specific nicotine hit, you simply smoke more to get this.

Beyond this, there are few smokers that have such a specific need for nicotine that they will notice the change in percentage and for the most part, this restriction is entirely unnoticeable.

The final consumer specific restriction is that the cartridge/tank is limited to 2ML. Once again, for the average, everyday user this change is unnoticeable.

A cartridge/tank is more than enough for one person to continue vaping as they did before.

Where this restriction comes to play is for communal vaping, in which you can expect an awful lot of refilling and competition vaping in which smoke cloud size and shape is severely limited by these changes.

As you can clearly see, these restrictions are really very minimal and don’t really affect the average Joe.

What does affect the average Joe, however, are the new health and safety regulations. As of May 2016.

All vaporizer products require strict product submission in order to be sold in the EU.

Ingredients such as caffeine, colourings and taurine have all been absolutely banned and there are new labeling and warning requirements too.

These restrictions may not hurt the average consumer, but in reality they affect the manufacturers in many ways.