British American Tobacco (BAT) has published a job advertisement announcing plans to install Velo (nicotine sachets) and Vuse (e-cigarette) vending machines in pubs in a dozen British cities[1].
The job advert indicates that BAT is recruiting at least 12 salespeople to enter alcohol sales venues (nightclubs, pubs, cocktail bars). The aim is to find new locations for vending machines and also other development options in order to increase the manufacturer’s product sales. The target towns are Basingstoke, Birmingham, Bury St. Edmunds, Cambridge, Coventry, Crawley, Edinburgh, Exeter, Maidstone, Reading, Royal Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks.
Questions about the accessibility of these products to minors
Vending machines selling vaping products and nicotine pouches in these locations have raised concerns about the potential sale of products to minors. Asked how the devices will prevent sales to minors, BAT responded: “Our machines will use the best method of age verification, in order to ensure compliance with this essential principle.”
The sale of cigarettes from vending machines was banned in October 2011 in the United Kingdom due to accessibility to minors. Before the ban, 14% of young people aged 11 to 15 who smoked said that vending machines were their usual source of supply. The vast majority of European countries have also banned cigarette vending machines, on the basis of scientific evidence establishing the easy accessibility of young people to tobacco products through this route. Increasingly sophisticated measures to restrict access to tobacco products in vending machines to adults only have proven largely ineffective.
The sale of e-cigarettes in distributors is not authorized in Scotland
The establishment of distributors by BAT selling vaping products in Edinburgh would be against the law. In 2010, Scotland passed legislation to ban the sale of cigarettes and vaping products, whether or not they contain nicotine, from vending machines (see Scottish Tobacco and Primary Care Services Legislation 2010).
Health groups are concerned, however, that the ban does not include nicotine sachets which are increasingly being used by young people across the UK. These nicotine sachets are also not subject to the regulations imposed on nicotine e-cigarettes following the transposition of the European directive on tobacco products, such as the affixing of health warnings and a maximum authorized nicotine content.
Aggressive marketing operations
This question about the real impossibility of young people to access the products in these distributors is all the more significant since the manufacturer has been deploying major advertising campaigns around the world since 2021 targeting young people. These campaigns promote its vaping devices and its nicotine pouch brand both online and at point of sale. In 2021, the manufacturer launched a £1 billion (€1.16 billion) marketing campaign that relied heavily on social media and event sponsorship to promote its nicotine sachets. In 2023, an analysis carried out by the American organization Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) of a BAT campaign on Instagram aimed at promoting VELO nicotine sachets showed that more than a quarter of the audience on these social media were aged 12 to 24 years old. In France, the National Committee Against Smoking (CNCT) has convicted British American Tobacco France (BATF) for illicit advertising of vaping products on the Internet, forcing the manufacturer to cease its activities on social networks. However, the association still notes the massive deployment of advertising and sales representatives at points of sale. In the barometer distributed quarterly[2]the CNCT indicates “British American Tobacco remains the manufacturer committing the most violations in terms of advertising for vaping products and nicotine sachets in the sales locations visited.”
©Tobacco Free Generation
AE
[1] EXCLUSIVE: BAT’s plans for vape vending machines in pubs revealed, Better Retailing, published June 18, 2024
[2] Barometer of advertising at points of sale, CNCT
National Committee Against Smoking |
