Recalls and Russia
In trade news: UK government body warns about branded products recall and Big T companies withdraw from selling in Russia
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by Dave Cross
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The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency says Vapeman branded products must be withdrawn from sale in Great Britain as they have failed to complete the statutory notification process.
From this moment, Vapeman branded products are deemed “unnotified” and must be removed from sale in all stores.
The Independent British Vape Trade Association says: “Only vaping products published on the MHRA website, following approval, should be bought and sold on the UK market. If a product cannot be found on the MHRA’s website, your supplier will be able to confirm whether this has been approved.”
The trade body says that businesses are legally required to:
- Remove all Vapeman products from sale
- Seek assistance from suppliers regarding Vapeman products
- Report any complaints to local Trading Standards offices, including copies of all correspondence and invoices
- Wholesalers of Vapeman should recall all Vapeman products, contacting customers who have purchased Vapeman products, asking them to return them
They say that this pertains to Vapeman branded products only (eg Vapeman Solo, Vapeman Solo 600, Vapeman Solo Mini, Vapeman Solo Bar Pro, Vapeman Solo X, Vapeman Solo +, Vapeman Solo Legend etc.) and should not be confused with UK based businesses with a similar name to “Vapeman”.
IBVTA warns that Trading Standards Officers “may carry out compliance visits to premises they suspect of selling Vapeman branded products. A business found to have Vapeman products exposed for sale will have the products seized and enforcement action considered. This enforcement action can include prosecution.”
In other news, two tobacco companies have removed products from sale in Russia.
Initially declining to take action, British American Tobacco has decided to remove all products from sale due to its “ethos and values”.
Despite the likes of Coca Cola and McDonalds pulling out of Russia, British American Tobacco started off by saying it was only going to scale back its activities due to the conflict in Ukraine.
By Friday, it changed its position, saying: “We have concluded that BAT’s ownership of the business in Russia is no longer sustainable in the current environment.”
British American Tobacco continued: “Today, we have initiated the process to rapidly transfer our Russian business in full compliance with international and local laws. Beyond continuing to pay our 2,500 employees, we will do our utmost to safeguard their future employment. Upon completion, BAT will no longer have a presence in Russia.”
Lagging behind, Imperial Brands eventually joined the party, promising to continue to pay its staff – but by transferring business activities to a third party (thereby continuing to trade in Russia, albeit in a different form).
Philip Morris has announced it would only “suspend investment” and “scale down manufacturing”.
Photo Credit:
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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