Since British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated that he would launch strong regulation on the British e-cigarette industry, all parties in the UK have gradually reached a consensus: a war around disposable e-cigarettes is breaking out.

In the statement issued by the health department, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak mentioned two main points: one is that he is worried about the current rapid increase in the use of underage e-cigarettes; Carry out targeted marketing. This is the first time that the British Prime Minister has spoken out since a series of turmoil in the British e-cigarette market this year. This incident has been interpreted by the outside world as the UK is about to usher in stricter regulation of e-cigarettes.

According to British media reports, the British government is considering strengthening the supervision of e-cigarettes based on the proliferation of underage use of e-cigarettes and the environmental pollution caused by disposable e-cigarettes, and this move may be supported by the British public: a recent According to a survey, 62% of Britons believe that electronic cigarettes are as harmful as smoking, or even more harmful.

But when it seems that a united front is needed, the e-cigarette companies participating in the British market are gradually divided into two camps.

One camp is the one-off brands involved in the over-injection scandal, which competitors believe has achieved a leading market position by violating relevant product standards; Abandoned, eager to usher in stronger law enforcement. But what is interesting is that the latter's allies are multinational tobacco companies.

Co-founder of Vyko disposable e-cigarettes and UK vape shop said in an interview with British media that we are not connected to (leading brands through overfilling), but we are facing the same situation, and things are moving towards banning The discovery of disposable e-cigarettes is a development that would be a real shame (if a disposable ban ever comes to pass).

The above-mentioned two camps gradually formed after the one-time over-injection incident exposed by the "Daily Mail" in February this year. The director-general of the British Vaping Association once said in an interview with the media at the time that this situation has been going on for a long time.

The British media believes that the incident reflects the regulatory deficiencies in e-cigarettes in the UK, because MHRA, the drug and health product regulator responsible for supervising products; IBVTA, the British independent e-cigarette trade association, has chosen to believe that the companies involved will not repeat the promise.

In Gewu's view, this reflects the different perspectives of local companies, multinational tobacco companies, regulators, and industry organizations on this issue. The former is more from the perspective of business ethics and contracts, while the latter is more inclined to be based on regulatory costs and actual impacts.

Take Trading Standards as an example. After British American Tobacco reported to it that its competitors were over-invoicing, it made it clear that it "will consider the source of the information". According to the analysis of relevant people, British American Tobacco has a stake in the issue of minors, because if minors use e-cigarettes, they may not smoke-regulators do not want to be a tool for market competition.

In fact, the British channel is more inclined to improve its own operational capabilities rather than ignoring market choices and directing one size fits all. For example, Phoenix 2 Retail, a distributor of disposable e-cigarettes for Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Booker, One Stop and Spar, has established its own "pre-market + post-market testing plan" to ensure continuous supply of products to retailers.

The current mainstream view of the corporate camp that advertises compliance is to hope that the British regulators will strengthen supervision, including strengthening pre-market supervision and increasing actual testing, strengthening the sales approval process and increasing spot checks after listing, and imposing exemplary penalties on violating brands. In their view, violations can be repeated if they can benefit from violations without penalty.

There is a view that the complaints of compliant companies about weak supervision stem from jealousy of competitors' performance. Compared with compliant products, the advantages brought by overfilling are huge. Consumers can buy products with a longer service life at the same price. This makes many compliance companies believe that the over-injection incident exposed by the media before is like a free advertisement with great influence.

According to what the British media learned from practitioners, most of the batches sold through the British supermarket channels are now fully compliant. And the current priority of the British government is to control the use of e-cigarettes by minors. The British health minister stated in a public speech in April that e-cigarette companies will be found if their commercial goals are based on making minors addicted to nicotine.

Relevant people said that for violations of product standards, brands may be fined without a cap, and related companies will also be held accountable. But so far there are no related cases. It is more to urge relevant channels to follow the example of Tesco and remove the products involved.

But the over-injection incident has not brought good changes. Currently, UK retailers and wholesalers will at least ask to see proof of compliance related to products, if only to prepare for inspections. In addition, some companies have begun to use legality as a selling point.