TPD COMPLIANCE

What is TPD?

The Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) is an EU initiative which was created to increase health protection and awareness for consumers of tobacco products. It covers everything from how products are advertised, who they can be sold to and how they can be displayed. It also regulates the manufacturing process (including testing of the ingredients) and the packaging products need to have (like nicotine and health warnings). Finally, it also includes regulations surrounding where people can use tobacco products and how they’re taxed. TPD covers a wide range of products from your off-the-shelf cigarettes, rolling tobacco, cigars and e-cigarettes (including vapes and e-liquids).

The Tobacco Products Directive was created in May 2014 but came into effect on the 20th of May in 2016. After that time, any products that were not compliant could no longer be sold by retailers. Once TPD came into effect, some brands and products were no longer available in the as they didn’t comply with the regulations. For example, brands from the States aren’t required to manufacture products to the same specifications so not all products from the US are legally allowed to be sold in the EU.

What are the regulations?

Consumers haven’t felt a significant impact as the regulations mostly only affected the maximum strength of e-liquids and size of the tank. As the regulations have been around a while, vapers who bought their first e-cigarette in the last few years won’t know any different. The regulations made the following changes:

  • There’s a maximum tank capacity of 2ml. Previous tanks were often much larger, some of them up to 5ml capacity. This restriction also includes pod systems.
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                    • E-liquids and e-cigarettes need to be submitted to the MHRA for approval before they can be sold.
                      • The packaging of e-cigarettes and e-liquids must advertise the fact that they contain nicotine.
                      • E-liquids containing nicotine have a maximum bottle size of 10mls and a strength no greater than 20mg.
                      • E-liquids must be packaged in child resistant bottles.
                      • E-liquids can’t contain caffeine or taurine.

Why is vaping included in TPD?

E-liquids and e-cigarettes are classified as tobacco products purely based on the fact that nicotine (a common ingredient in e-liquids) is distilled from the tobacco plant. While there are e-liquids made with synthetic nicotine (meaning no tobacco leaf is used) they still fall under the tobacco classification. While e-liquids don’t actually contain tobacco, the tobacco plant has the highest natural concentration of nicotine in any plant which is why it’s the most common source for e-liquid manufacturers.

What we’re doing to be compliant:

At E-Liquids Superstore, we’ve done everything to make sure we’re fully compliant with TPD. All of the e-liquids we stock have been submitted to and approved by the MHRA and declared as TPD compliant.

All e-liquids that contain nicotine come in child resistant 10ml bottles. The maximum strength you can get is 20mg of nicotine per ml of e-liquid, we also stock short fill bottles of e-liquid. They’re all nicotine free and are designed to be mixed with a 10ml concentrated nicotine shot to mix to a mild nicotine strength. None of our e-liquids contain taurine, caffeine or diacetyl either. Any tank, vape kit or pod system you buy from E-Liquids Superstore will have a maximum 2ml capacity.

If you’ve got questions or are unsure of any of the regulations and how they affect you, feel free to get in touch with our customer service team by emailing us or giving us a call.