01 British American Tobacco plans to set up e-cigarette vending machines in bars

British American Tobacco is committed to launching e-cigarette and nicotine bag vending machines in bars and taverns to sell its Velo and Vuse products. The tobacco giant is recruiting at least 12 sales representatives for on-site sales agencies, with the aim of "ensuring new locations for vending machines and other business development solutions, ultimately increasing sales of specific BAT related products.". The target areas include Basingstoke, Birmingham, St. Edmunds, Cambridge, Coventry, Crowley, Edinburgh, Exeter, Mercedes, Reading, Royal Tengbridge, and Seven Oaks.

A spokesperson for British American Tobacco said, "British American Tobacco UK is pleased to be involved in a project to sell our Vuse and Velo brands through age limited vending machines. This goal will be achieved by reducing the health impact of our business, including reaching adult consumers who use our alternative nicotine products. The vending machines represent an exciting opportunity to further achieve our goals. Our machines will use the most advanced age verification technology to ensure that this fundamental principle is maintained."

02 Arcus Compliance Ltd announces strategic acquisition of VapeClick platform

Global regulatory compliance consulting firm Arcus Compliance Ltd announced today its strategic acquisition of the electronic cigarette industry data platform VapeClick. VapeClick is recognized as the most comprehensive online catalog in the UK e-cigarette industry, providing e-cigarette and e-cigarette product data submitted and notified by the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) through a single online portal website. It provides unique functionality for all stakeholders in the e-cigarette industry, including consumers, manufacturers, retailers, and law enforcement teams, to quickly and accurately search and identify published and notified products. This feature is the first step in verifying compliance with UK e-cigarette regulations and is crucial. Support various use cases and provide customized reports and notifications through its e-cigarette intelligent application.

This milestone transaction emphasizes Arcus Compliance's commitment to the highest compliance standards, providing its customers and partners with the most advanced solutions to achieve and maintain strict regulatory compliance in the UK and beyond. The availability and transparency of integrating compliance data on a single platform are crucial for establishing and maintaining trust across the industry between consumers and regulatory agencies. By acquiring vape click.com, Arcus Compliance Ltd will continue to develop and enhance databases and their numerous applications, providing unparalleled resources in a thriving proprietary software portfolio.

The vision of this innovation platform is that it will continue to develop to meet the needs of emerging industries, while also meeting existing and future regulatory requirements. Arcus Compliance CEO Lee Bryan commented, "We are pleased to agree to the acquisition of the vape click.com portal. This solution has become the preferred portal for registering vape products in the UK and will be an important component of the cutting-edge Arcus software product portfolio." We have developed an exciting integration plan that includes developments in other industries and provides valuable oversight to law enforcement agencies throughout Europe. "

Raphael Klimaszewski, Chief Technology Officer of VapeClick, added, "This is an important milestone in the growth and development of the innovative vape click. com platform. We spent many years building databases, completely changing the way we quickly and conveniently check and monitor the compliance status of e-cigarette products.".

03 The Ukrainian government is implementing the "Electronic Tobacco" project to simplify information on tobacco production and imports in Ukraine

The Ukrainian Ministry of Production and Consumer Services, together with the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the Ministry of Health, has launched a portal website in the field of tobacco production and imports. This website ensures transparency in the circulation of tobacco products, allows the state to control their quality, has a clear list of Ukrainian tobacco product manufacturers and importers, and combats the "black market". The data on the composition of tobacco products is not confidential and will be published on the portal website by the State Administration of Production and Consumer Services. This will enable people to choose what to consume and whether to consume.

This portal website will be put into operation in February 2025. According to the law, manufacturers must input data into a universal database before February 1st. At the same time, the finalization of legislation is currently underway. In the future, the Ukrainian system will synchronize with the European system, which will protect information privacy within the EU.

04 Preventing Zyn from Smoking from Being Suppressed by the Democratic Party, Conservative Non profit Organizations in the United States Initiate a Movement

Conservative non-profit organizations: Consumer Protection and Future Construction have teamed up nationwide to promote efforts to prevent Democratic lawmakers from cracking down on Zyn's smoking. We are currently establishing presence and collecting signatures at sports events across the country to prevent the regulatory removal of popular tobacco substitutes from the market.

According to The Washington Observer, since the government implemented strict regulations on e-cigarettes, mouth containing cigarettes have become increasingly popular, with sales increasing from $126 million in December 2019 to $808 million in March 2022. The Biden administration has previously called for restrictions on e-cigarettes, mint cigarettes, and other nicotine products. Schumer also called on the FDA to investigate PRIME energy drinks during the summer.

Mouth smoking has been proven to help adult smokers' transition to safer alternatives'. Sweden has almost eliminated the use of traditional cigarettes by promoting a shift towards safer alternatives and opening up the country to allow the sale of smokeless alternatives (such as smoking in the mouth). Compared to banning smoking from the mouth, alternative products such as smoking from the mouth can help accelerate the rapid decline in smoking rates among Swedish adults.

The sales and import ban on electronic cigarettes in Kazakhstan has come into effect

Electronic cigarettes on store shelves in Kazakhstan are disappearing, and electronic cigarettes or "disposable products" popular among Kazakhstani people have now been banned. Smoking is not punishable, but sales, distribution, and imports are subject to criminal responsibility, and you may be sentenced to prison for violating the law.

Penalties for importing and producing electronic cigarettes: a fine of up to 2000 MCI (7.3 million Tenge in 2024) or up to 600 hours of community service, or up to 2 years of restriction/imprisonment. If the criminal group repeatedly engages in these behaviors and the income scale is particularly large, the punishment will be even harsher: a fine of up to 5000 MCI (18.4 million Tenge in 2024), community service of up to 18.4 million Tenge for 1200 hours, or a maximum of 5 years of restriction/imprisonment.

06 Electronic cigarettes in North Carolina, USA require registration and FDA approval before they can be sold

The State Senate Judiciary Committee supported legislation on Wednesday to establish an e-cigarette registry that would only allow federally authorized e-cigarette products to be sold in North Carolina. Most electronic cigarette products on the shelves are not authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration. The bill has been submitted to the Senate Rules Committee.

According to the North Carolina Youth Tobacco Survey, from 2018 to 2019, the number of high school students using e-cigarettes increased by 78%, and the number of middle school students using e-cigarettes increased by 48%. This has become a big problem, to the extent that many schools have installed electronic cigarette detectors. Multiple school districts in the state and North Carolina have successfully joined federal class action lawsuits against e-cigarette manufacturers such as Juul. North Carolina won $47.8 million in a settlement with Juul.

According to this legislation, manufacturers need to obtain certification from the state tax bureau in order to include their products in the qualified electronic cigarette product catalog. According to this legislation, manufacturers need to obtain certification from the state tax bureau in order to include their products in the qualified electronic cigarette product catalog.

07 Russian State Duma proposes website owners to remove online cigarette sales advertisements

The State Duma Representative (SD) has developed and submitted a bill for review, which requires website owners to remove advertisements for remote sales of nicotine containing products (regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes, tobacco, etc.) from their resources, and allows access to websites that do not meet this requirement to be blocked without a court ruling.

"Internet websites, social networks and instant messaging services have become one of the largest and fastest growing channels for low-cost distribution of counterfeit and smuggled tobacco and nicotine containing products," the representatives said in an explanatory note.

They recalled that the law prohibits remote sales of products containing nicotine. Meanwhile, according to them, the existing tools used to prevent websites from violating the law are ineffective as they require a court decision, which can take up to three months to be published. In order to solve this problem, the legislators proposed to supplement the Information, Information Technology and Information Protection Law, which requires Internet resource owners to independently search for and delete information about online tobacco and e-cigarette sales. It is worth noting that previously, remote alcohol sales could also be suppressed through similar methods.