New vape law in force from TODAY: Britons could be fined up to £200 for buying an e-cig - everything you need to know about 'proxy purchasing' rules
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New vape laws come into force in Britain today in a bid to crackdown on young teenagers taking up the habit.
Britons could now be fined £200 for buying a vape, nicotine pouch or other nicotine product for somebody under 18.
They can also be refused a sale by retailers who suspect the product will be used by a minor.
Known as 'proxy purchasing', this covers when someone legally old enough to buy an age-restricted product buys it on behalf of someone who is not.
It already applies to alcohol and tobacco, and from today extends to vaping and nicotine products, including nicotine pouches.
Adults caught buying, or attempting to buy, a vape, nicotine pouch or other nicotine product on behalf of someone under 18 can now be issued with a £200 fixed penalty notice in England, Wales and Scotland, or £250 in Northern Ireland.
The new offence covers not only buying but also attempting to buy vaping or nicotine products on behalf of someone under 18.
From today, you could be fined £200 for buying a vape, nicotine pouch or other nicotine product for somebody under 18
It applies to vaping products and nicotine products, including zero-nicotine vapes.
Retail staff are expected to be alert to suspicious purchase patterns.
Until today, nicotine pouches had no statutory minimum age of sale at all in the UK.
They contain no tobacco and are not inhaled like vapes, meaning they fell outside existing tobacco and vaping age-of-sale laws and were instead covered by general product safety rules.
The Tobacco and Vapes Act introduces a UK-wide minimum age of sale of 18 for nicotine pouches and creates a new proxy purchasing offence covering vaping and nicotine products.
Government guidance tells retail staff to be alert to proxy purchasing and to watch for patterns that suggest it - an adult buying immediately after a refused sale, for instance, or buying while a younger person waits nearby.
In practice, that means you may be asked a question you were not asked before, or a sale may be declined even though you are visibly over 18.
That may simply reflect retailers taking a cautious approach to complying with the new law.
Retailers will also be banned from selling nicotine pouches, zero-nicotine vape liquids and even vape parts such as coils to anyone under the age of 18.
Previously, nicotine pouches and some other products fell outside existing age-of-sale laws because they were not covered by tobacco legislation or vaping regulations.
Labour is also maintaining the de facto lifetime ban on cigarettes for anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 that was first mooted by the Conservatives.
From 1 January 2027, the 'smokefree generation' provisions begin.
Anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 will never legally be able to buy cigarettes, with the minimum purchasing age rising by a year each year.
It comes as experts have said that there is a 'growing body of evidence linking vaping to respiratory problems in children'.
Earlier this year, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health conducted a comprehensive review into the impact of vaping on children and youngsters.
After analysing more than 14,000 published papers, 325 studies in full and findings from 81 studies, they concluded that vaping is linked to several health problems for children and teenagers, particularly affecting the lungs and breathing system.
Young people who vape were found to be more likely to experience coughing, wheezing, bronchitis-like symptoms and worsening asthma.
Action on Smoking and Health's 2026 Smokefree GB Youth Survey found that nearly 20 per cent of 11 to 17-year-olds in Britain have tried vaping, equivalent to around one million young people. The figure has remained at a similar level since 2023.
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