Oldham City Council in Manchester is joining hands with a leading vaping industry expert to help tackle counterfeit and non-compliant products on behalf of Geek Bar, stated recent reports.
Billy Rahman, the managing director at vape manufacturer iBreathe, has been appointed to act as a consultant for Geek Bar. According to reports, he hopes to help tackle illegal vape products in a campaign which has already resulted in the seizure of thousands of pounds worth of items in the UK.
“I have operated in the vaping industry for 12 years and the issues facing Geek Bar with counterfeit and non-compliant products are the same as those my business faces,” explains Rahman.
“These products originate almost exclusively from China and at least 11 large-scale manufacturers have been closed down there in recent months.”
Rahman is also working alongside compliance company Arcus Compliance, which represents some of the largest brands in the vaping industry, to ensure that all CLP (classification, labelling and packaging) requirements for Geek Bar products being sold around the UK are met.
“Working with Oldham as the primary authority, this partnership has already produced results, with the confiscation of numerous illegal products in North Lanarkshire. Meanwhile we have also identified several counterfeit re-sellers operating in Southall in west London, and in parts of Manchester,” Rahman continued.
Trading standards officers recently carried out the biggest single raid so far in the UK, seizing non-compliant disposable vaping products worth around £190,000 from a former takeaway premises in Newcastle. Items have also been seized in raids in recent weeks in Aberdeen, North Lanarkshire, South Ayrshire, Stockton, Halton, Walsall, Cherwell in Oxfordshire, Cheltenham, Cirencester and Kent.
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