With the ban on disposables in June and the impending Tobacco & Vapes Bill, what is your opinion of the UK’s approach to regulation of the vape category?
The UK government supports vaping as a harm-reduction tool to help adult smokers move away from combustible cigarettes. However, there are two main challenges impacting this opportunity for the industry – the prevalence of youth vaping and the increasing rise of illicit products. Politicians, the media, and the public want youth vaping to end, with some 62% of people saying the government is not doing enough to address the problem.
The Government’s proposed solution to this – the Tobacco and Vapes Bill – is a welcome first step, but in our view doesn’t sufficiently solve the direct issue it intends to. If an underage user wishes to vape, restrictions on flavours, packaging, contents, and the shop displays – all potential measures proposed in the Bill – will not completely deter them. There is opportunity to explore innovative technological solutions to address this, which should be considered.
On the other hand, the single-use ban is being introduced as part of current legislation primarily to cut down on e-cigarette waste as part of environmental concerns. While it’s true that banning disposable vapes could reduce the prevalence of underage vaping, there are also concerns that refillable, bigger-puff devices will actually become more attractive for young people as they are more affordable with the increase in puff-count not being reflected in device pricing.
So you think government measures don’t go far enough in addressing youth use?
The measures are a welcome first step, but it’s about putting the right strategies in place to eliminate youth use, while providing choice for smokers to begin their path away from cigarettes and ensure that current vapers do not revert back to tobacco use.
We believe that in addition to retailers adopting – and delivering – robust age verification programmes at point of sale, age verification should be considered at the point-of-use. If we can prevent underage users accessing products by effectively making devices inoperable until the user’s age is verified, then we can eliminate unlawful youth use of all vaping devices, irrespective of device type, packaging and flavour profiles.
The primary aim should be to provide a balanced approach where youth use is eliminated, but legal-age adults still have a choice of alternatives to quit smoking. The greater the choice, the more opportunity there is for smokers to find the right product in helping them move away from harmful tobacco products.
How will your solution help address issues around youth vaping?
Up until now, age verification has been primarily focused at the point of sale, with the onus placed on retailers to determine the age of customers or seek proof of age prior to sale. This can sometimes be challenging for retailers and staff, and in extreme situations lead to confrontation, alongside issues with proxy purchasing.
There has been very little focus on the role of technology in preventing access at the point of use. We believe that to effectively address the holistic youth usage problem, the Government should consider mandating age verification at the point of use, utilising existing technology which can be universally adopted by all manufacturers, and meets regulatory requirements for security and privacy.
How does the technology work?
IKE Tech provides a secure and reliable open standard age verification solution, which works across all digital marketplace platforms i.e. Android and iOS, that can be continuously locked or unlocked at the point of use only by authenticated users. By installing a unique Bluetooth (BLE) chip and identity verification technology into any vaping device at the point of manufacture, the device then has the ability to be locked or unlocked and restrict access to underage users. To activate the device, the user will sign in and perform a one-time identity check against state-recognised documents (e.g. passport, driving licence) on the IKE biometric authentication mobile app, similar to that used in mobile banking, with their details stored for future reference and ease of access. Once their identity and age has been verified, any chip-enabled devices will appear to be paired, and their access granted. If the user’s identity cannot be confirmed the device will remain locked and inoperable.
What advantages does it offer compared to traditional age verification?
While all retailers will continue to implement age verification protocols such as Challenge 25 at the point of sale, this technology provides an additional safeguard by rendering the product ineffective post sale, until age is proven.
A recent study undertaken to assess usability, safety, and effectiveness of the IKE Tech platform produced extremely promising results with 100 percent of users successfully completing their age verification and 91 percent rating the app “Extremely Easy” or “Very Easy” to use. More importantly, no underage individuals were able to access the Bluetooth enabled device confirming the IKE System’s ability to reduce user error, prevent underage access, and provide a user-friendly experience for adults.
While many vape companies are developing their individual solutions to solve the problem of age-gating and authentication, IKE has the benefit of being an open standard that can be universally adopted, ensuring consistent and reliable age verification and authentication of products across the industry.
This solution is something that Government proposals currently do not address, which will only reduce underage vaping by making it less appealing and placing more responsibility on those who sell vapes to the end user. Instead, age-gating technology at point of use provides an additional guarantee that the user is over 18 if accessing the product.
What are the next steps for IKE?
We are looking for the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to be strengthened by creating secondary powers so ministers can explore measures to compel the use of similar technology after a period of consultation. This would not delay the legislation, it would rather create time for the Government to properly consider the policy while enabling them to keep pace with industry changes and innovations in the future.
We are also in continuous talks with leading retail chains, trade associations, vape manufacturers and other relevant stakeholders to build partnerships and work collaboratively to address the youth usage problem. We believe that the industry has a role to play in solving the problem and the sector is ripe for technological disruption to help strike the right balance in regulatory action.
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