Vaping businesses in the EU dealing with diverse marketing rules

With Point of Sale (POS) marketing regulations varying from country to country within the European Union, E-cigarette businesses are struggling to create consistent advertising strategies.

Diane Caruana

September 28, 2016

E-cig Intelligence posted a new report emphasizing and examining the differences in regulations related to POS marketing across six major EU markets, Germany, France , UK, Italy, Poland and Netherlands. Some of the examples of this are how Italy and the UK are the only two where advertising in all types of retail outlets, and distribution of free samples is allowed, whilst France and Poland are the only countries where advertising on the exterior of vape shops is permitted.

Why is POS advertising crucial?

Besides the above, the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) has now also come into play. This ensures that no form of advertising could cross EU countries’ borders and therefore bans any advertising that comes in form of broadcasts or is accessible online. Hence, in-store advertising has become imperative for vaping brands and retailers alike.

It is imperative that a set of marketing guidelines that all EU regulators sign off on are agreed upon and released.

In light of this, we might now witness the cigarette industry turning to new technologies for marketing such as “the replacement of paper posters with digital screens, making it possible to show multiple messages sequentially on a single screen, and also location-based marketing, a strategy that uses a mobile device’s location to message the consumer about products from a nearby business,” suggests the e-cig intelligence report. It goes on to mention that all this still carries numerous hazards due to other different restrictions, for example in the UK promotional texts and emails are forbidden.

The need for a uniform set of marketing guidelines across the EU

The conclusive argument to all the above was that a clear understanding of all the different regulations to be complied with in each country is necessary, and a consensus must be reached by the vaping industry in the EU. It is imperative that a set of marketing guidelines that all EU regulators sign off on are agreed upon and released. Once all this is accomplished, things will be clearer, and more manageable for e-cigarette manufacturers and retailers.