The Rise of Illegal E-Cigarettes in the UK

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Walking down London's Oxford Street, besides American candy stores and high-end retailers, you're sure to come across someone trying to sell a pack of disposable e-cigarettes. These brightly colored, highly addictive plastic sticks are available almost everywhere - from local liquor stores to barber shops, nightclubs, and tanning salons, all the way to the end of the list - British streets have been inundated by these shiny, highly addictive items.

This is a serious issue that affects our health and environment. According to data from the environmental activist group Material Focus, around five million disposable e-cigarettes are discarded in the UK every week. Recently, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a ban on the sale of all disposable e-cigarettes, citing the need to prevent children from accessing these addictive devices, even though it is already illegal to sell these products to individuals under the age of 18. However, this comprehensive ban has raised concerns that it may inadvertently fuel the thriving black market for these products.

According to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation, a total of 484,366 illegal e-cigarettes were seized in the port of Kent in 2023, with an additional 19,349 confiscated from shops - and many more products remain undetected. Industry insiders have revealed to VICE that as many as 40 to 50% of e-cigarettes in the UK are currently illegal - meaning they are illegally imported and do not meet current British regulations. So how did we get into this predicament?

To understand the severity of this issue, we need to trace back to Shenzhen, China, an aptly named area known as "the e-cigarette valley." "The region has over 1,000 factories, where 90% of e-cigarettes worldwide are manufactured," said Marcus Lindblad, director of the nicotine company Haypp. With Beijing cracking down on the domestic market, many of these companies have now shifted their focus to overseas exports.

Simon from Yuoto, a distributor from the e-cigarette industry, told VICE that the UK is a significant market for e-cigarettes, both legal and illegal. It is a major market in Europe, accounting for approximately 30% of total exports. Simon estimates that about half of these products are obtained through illegal means.

Many of these e-cigarettes are sold to enter the UK through representatives stationed in the e-cigarette valley, contacting stores, distributors, and wholesalers directly - often through cold calls on WhatsApp. "I have received multiple calls - they are very persistent," said Yusuf, who works at an e-cigarette wholesale distributor in Halifax. "I don't think this ban will help much in solving the problem." There are also many WhatsApp groups specifically targeting wholesale sellers, filled with suppliers trying to sell e-cigarettes abroad, many of which exceed the legal limits for puff quantity and nicotine content.

For small batches of goods, illegal e-cigarettes usually do not face severe consequences. Paul from Yorkshire, who has been working in the e-cigarette industry for four years and wishes to remain anonymous, received some illegal products from China for personal use. He noted that these products were delivered like any other package, without encountering any issues or having to pay customs fees.

Many Chinese distributors in contact with Paul also offer services to deceive UK customs by falsely labeling their products on packaging. "I've had distributors contact me via WhatsApp offering to change the packaging of products, such as reducing the content from 50 milligrams to 20 milligrams, or decreasing the volume from 3.2 milliliters to 2 milliliters. It's like a get out of jail free card - if caught, you can claim ignorance," he told VICE.

Andrei Kutrov is the chief executive of the e-cigarette company Evapo. He noticed mislabeling causing products to be classified as zero-nicotine disposable products, bypassing UK tobacco product regulations. "This way, they can sell disposable e-cigarettes with larger tanks," he told VICE. "The government has known about this issue for years, but still hasn't closed this loophole for nicotine products.

Even if illegal e-cigarettes reach retailers, the consequences are not severe if they are found to be selling them. "Last year, a retailer was fined only 25 pounds - that's ridiculous," Lindblade added. "Even now, after the latest announcement by Rash Sunak, we are only talking about fines of 100 or 200 pounds.

For larger quantities of goods, more complex techniques may be used. Paul mentioned that he had heard that criminals were taking advantage of green channel shipping policies, which limit inspections to only imports and exports, making it easier to get packages through by bribing officials. Manchester seems to be a hub for illegal imports, with both Paul and Kurtloff taking note. "I know people in the city who import 10 containers of e-cigarettes at once, equating to tens of thousands of units," Paul added. Many of these units are sold to physical stores, which often do not carry out identity checks.

Paul also pointed out that individual retailers often purchase these packages and use social media apps like Snapchat to sell them to children. "I have witnessed individual 'dealers' using Snapchat to market e-cigarettes to students, and it is very effective. Within days, they will have many customers, and because the messages disappear, the consequences are minimal," he explained. Similar strategies are also being utilized on TikTok, with many accounts with a large following becoming popular by selling illegal e-cigarettes to the public.

So, will a complete ban solve this problem? It may not. "These addictive products are already very attractive to the black market," said Scott Butler, director of Material Focus. "We are shifting the disposable e-cigarette market from a legal market that does not comply with its legal responsibilities to an underground illegal market. I hope that channels within the black market will be more restricted, but we have already seen illegal e-cigarettes everywhere.

This is very similar to the recent ban on nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in the UK," said Katya Kovalskaya of the policy think tank Volteface. "It is largely related to populism - doing things that the audience likes to hear, but without truly considering the consequences. Yes, we all want children not to use disposable e-cigarettes. But what this policy fails to highlight is that it is already illegal for children to use e-cigarettes. So, you are prohibiting something that is already illegal, rather than trying to prevent it from happening in the first place.

This is the way the British government treats every drug or substance," she continued. "They just choose a blanket, unprofessional and detail-lacking approach. They don't investigate what is effective, what will reduce the widespread consumption of e-cigarettes." Kovalsky argues that the government should take a bottom-up approach, including better educating people about the risks of smoking and its impact on the environment.

Another solution is to implement strict licensing laws for the sale of e-cigarettes. "This is what the industry is calling for - if retailers are found to be breaking the law, fines can go up to £10,000," said Kutrov. "We have around 55,000 retailers in the UK, including convenience stores and e-cigarette shops. These businesses could provide financial support by obtaining a license to sell e-cigarettes, with the proceeds used to support the trading standards department in tackling this issue. Currently, trading standards are stretched to their limits, they do not have enough funds to enforce this policy - leading to the flourishing black market.

In typical Tory party fashion, this short-sighted blanket ban may not solve the issue at hand. The e-cigarette industry is constantly evolving, with many disposable e-cigarette manufacturers investing in updated "non-disposable" models, such as rechargeable pods. However, the implications of how these updated models will address the environmental impact of plastic waste generated by disposable e-cigarettes remains to be seen.

Although this yet-to-be-detailed new ban may affect the legal market, it also poses a risk of strengthening the competitive black market. "This policy is overly simplistic," Kowalski concluded. "Trying to eradicate disposable e-cigarettes in this way will only create potential customers for existing illegal black markets. This is the case with nitrous oxide, and it will happen here too. We need to focus on harm reduction, not just blanket bans for the sake of populism.