New FOI data shows that two unscrupulous retailers were caught every day selling vapes to teens last year. Despite this, 3 in 5 confirmed cases received no fine in 2023.
Businesses who were caught and fined for selling vapes to minors, 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.
Last year, the government missed out on over £1.7 million due to the maximum fines not being issued. The actual total fines for underage vape sales across the UK amounted to just £126,000 in 2023.
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.
While the data highlights improvements in local authorities setting stronger punishments for those caught, with a 69% increase in fines handed out in the latest year, this still remains too low.
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.
“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.”
