There is a seven-fold rise in the number of businesses caught selling vapes to minors over the last four years, a new FOI report has found, prompting calls to introduce a vape retailer licensing framework and higher fines for offenders.
According to the report, two unscrupulous retailers were caught every day selling vapes to teens last year. Despite this, three in five confirmed cases received no fine in 2023. Those who were caught were slapped with a fine of around £400 — over six times lower than the current maximum penalty of £2,500.
The findings come from The 2024 Underage Vape Sales Report which analysed a Freedom of Information request from 138 local authorities, obtained by Vape Club. The report shows more needs to be done to stop rogue retailers from selling to children, with experts urging the government to introduce a "Vape Retailer and Distributor Licensing framework".
Dan Marchant, director of the UK’s largest vaping retailer, Vape Club, said, “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. 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.
“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.”
