From 1st October, it will be illegal to sell e-cigarettes or e-liquids to children under the age of 18 and the proxy purchase of both tobacco and e-cigarette products will also be illegal.
Retailers will need to check that a person is over the age of 18 before selling them e-cigarettes or associated products, such as refill cartridges and batteries, or they could receive an on the spot fine of £50.
Proxy purchasing – the process of an adult buying an age restricted product on behalf of someone who is underage – of tobacco and e-cigarettes will incur fines in line with those already in place for alcohol. The fines in place for the proxy purchase of an age restricted product include a fixed penalty of £90 and up to £2,500 if taken to court.
There will be an age restriction exemption for e-cigarettes which are licensed as medicines. Only e-cigarettes with a nicotine content of over 20mg/ml are licenced as medicines by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and will be allowed to be sold to persons under the age of 18.
The new laws form part of the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015 and the Proxy Purchasing of Tobacco, Nicotine Products etc. (Fixed Penalty Amount) Regulations 2015.
ACS has previously produced detailed Assured Advice guidance to help you with the compliance challenge of age restricted sales which is available here: http://www.acs.org.uk/advice/age-restrictions/.
