Chinese vaping giant flouting UK advertising rules on selling to children

theguardian.com:

A leading e-cigarette brand is flouting rules to promote its products to young people in Britain, anObserver investigation has found, as experts warn that brightly coloured, sweet-flavoured vapes are being used by children as young as seven.

Elf Bar, a Chinese-owned vaping giant that has seen the use of its products by under-18s soar in the past year, is being promoted by social influencers, who in some cases claim to be paid for the promotions and benefit from free products.

The videos – many of which show influencers vaping on camera – are not age restricted and are not always clearly marked as ads. Some have attracted hundreds of thousands of views on the short-form video app TikTok, which is used byhalf of eight to 11-year-olds and three-quarters of 16 to 17-year-olds.

The promotions, which appear to break rules prohibiting e-cigarette advertising on social media, are seemingly part of a push by Elf Bar to reach new customers in Britain, including campaigns on buses and billboards and giveaways of its products. TikTok this weekend removed two accounts promoting Elf Bar products after being alerted to them by the Observer.

The UK vaping market is worth more than £1bn a year, but public health experts are alarmed that disposable vapes such as those made by Elf Bar, which cost as little as £3.99 each, are leading to increased use among young people.

Selling e-cigarettes to under-18s is illegal, but they are easy to buy online and on the high street.

The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) said this weekend it wanted to see tighter regulations to ban brightly coloured packaging such as that used by Elf Bar and a review of flavours likely to appeal to children.

Dr Gareth Nye, programme leader for medical science at