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The UK government has introduced a range of measures in recent years designed to reduce smoking rates and address the rapid rise in youth vaping. Alongside proposals such as the ban on the sale and supply of disposable vapes from June 2025 and the Tobacco and Vapes Bill (2026), attention has also turned to how vaping products are packaged, designed, and displayed in shops. These areas may seem less significant than product bans and age restrictions, but they play an important role in how consumers interact with vaping products. 

The Tobacco and Vapes: Packaging, Appearance, and Display consultation explores whether tighter controls on the presentation of vaping products could help reduce the appeal to children and young people. But at the same time, policymakers must also consider the role that vaping plays in helping many adult smokers move away from combustible tobacco. So, it’s important to strike a balance between these two objectives, and this is the central theme of the UK’s evolving approach to tobacco harm reduction. 

The consultation provides an early indication of how different vaping products could look in the future. Bear in mind that the proposals are not yet law. Yet, they still offer valuable insight into the government’s thinking and the direction regulation may take over the coming years. 

The guide explains why the consultation was launched, the changes that are currently being considered, how they could affect the vaping industry, and what the next steps may be before any new rules are introduced. 

Why Has the Government Launched the Consultation?

The Reasoning

The Tobacco and Vapes: Packaging, Appearance and Display consultation forms part of the government’s wide ambition to create a smokefree generation and address growing concerns about youth vaping. 

Although smoking rates have continued to decline across the UK,m the popularity of vaping among young people has attracted increasing attention from health organisations, educators, and policymakers. As a result, the government has been reviewing multiple aspects of vaping regulation to determine whether further safeguards are needed. 

Rather than focusing solely on the products themselves, this consultation looks at how vaping products are presented to consumers. The government is examining whether colourful packaging, distinctive device design, flavour descriptions, and highly visible retail displays may make vaping products more appealing to children and teens. The consultation seeks evidence on whether restricting these features could reduce youth uptake while still supporting access for adults who use vaping products as an alternative to smoking. 

The proposals also sit alongside broader reforms that are being considered through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which introduces a range of measures designed to reduce smoking and nicotine use among future generations. Naturally, packaging and display represent only one element of the wider strategy, as there are also existing restrictions on advertising, age of sale, and product standards. 

The Challenges of Balancing Public Health Priorities

Policymakers face a lot of challenges, but one of the most significant is balancing two crucial public health objectives. 

On one hand, there is widespread support for reducing youth vaping and preventing children from becoming addicted to nicotine. On the other hand, many public health experts continue to recognise vaping as a less harmful alternative for adult smokers who are unable or unwilling to quit through other methods. 

This means any future regulations must carefully consider how changes to packaging and product presentation could influence not one but two different groups of consumers. Ultimately, measures that reduce the appeal of vaping products to children should not make them less accessible or understandable for adults seeking to switch away from cigarettes. 

For this reason, the consultation explores whether their appearance and presentation can be modified in ways that support public health objectives.  

About the Packaging, Appearance, and Display Consultation

What Is It? 

Before any significant changes to UK law are introduced, the government will often carry out a public consultation. The process allows policymakers to gather evidence, assess the potential impact of proposed measures, and hear from those who may be affected. The Tobacco and Vapes: Packaging, Appearance, and Display consultation follows this approach and invited views on whether additional restrictions on the presentation of tobacco and vaping products would help achieve the public health objectives. 

A consultation doesn’t create new legal requirements. It presents a series of proposals and questions, and asks respondents to provide evidence, practical insights, and opinions. These responses are then analysed alongside existing research to decide whether to proceed with all, some, or none of the proposals. 

The consultation is open to a broad range of stakeholders: 

• Manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, and retailers: They use the opportunity to explain how potential changes could affect their businesses.

• Health organisations, local authorities, enforcement bodies, and academic researchers: They contribute evidence related to public health and consumer behaviour. 

• Members of the public (including adult smokers and vapers): They are encouraged to submit their views.

The collaborative approach helps ensure that any future regulations are informed by practical experience and scientific evidence. It also allows the government to identify unintended consequences that may not have been obvious when developing the proposals. 

Although consultations are an important part of the policymaking process, it is equally important to remember that the proposals are not final. Following the consultation period, the government will review the evidence received before publishing its response. This means that proposals can be amended, withdrawn altogether, or even receive additional measures. 

What Areas Are Covered? 

The consultation is divided into three broad themes. Each focuses on a different aspect of how tobacco and vaping products are presented to consumers. 

The first theme examines packaging, including colours, branding, flavour descriptions, graphics, and mandatory information displayed on products. 

The second theme considers the appearance of the products themselves. This explores whether features such as colours, shapes, finishes, or decorative elements contribute to youth appeal. 

The third theme addresses retail displays. It looks at how vaping products are presented in shops and whether changes to product visibility or placement could further discourage underage interest. 

Together, these three areas form a comprehensive review of how vaping products are marketed visually. They don’t aim to change the products’ core function or the existing age restrictions governing their sale. 

What Are the Proposed Changes to Vape Packaging?

One of the most detailed sections of the consultation focuses on the packaging used for vaping products. The government is considering whether changes are possible in order to:

• Make vaping less attractive to a younger audience

• Support vaping for adult consumers

It’s important to understand that the consultation doesn’t propose banning branded packaging altogether. Instead, it explores a range of options that are designed to create a more standardised appearance while preserving the information adult consumers need to make informed purchasing decisions. 

Standardising Packaging Design

One proposal is to introduce greater consistency across vape packaging by limiting the use of bold colours, distinctive branding, and eye-catching visual designs. This would not allow manufacturers to use highly individual packaging styles by introducing regulations that require products to follow a more standardised format. 

Where does this proposition come from? The approach shares similarities with the standardised packaging rules already used for tobacco products. But the consultation doesn’t propose applying identical requirements to vaping products. Instead, it only seeks evidence on what level of standardisation would be appropriate, taking into account the role vaping products play in tobacco harm reduction. 

Supporters of standardisation argue that brightly coloured packaging and premium branding may increase the appeal of products to younger consumers. 

Those against standardisation argue that branding can also help adult users identify trusted products more easily. 

Restrictions on Images and Promotional Graphics

The consultation also examines whether certain graphics, illustrations, or decorative elements should be restricted. This includes colourful artwork, cartoon-style imagery, and other visual features that may attract attention beyond mere product identification. 

The government is exploring whether removing these elements could reduce the visual appeal of vaping products without affecting their functionality. 

However, it also recognises that packaging plays an important role in communicating information about products. It makes it necessary to distinguish between promotional imagery and genuinely useful consumer information. 

Product Information Requirements

Packaging would still need to provide consumers with clear and accurate product information, even if some visual elements may be reduced. This includes mandatory and regulatory information, such as: 

• Nicotine strength

• Manufacturer information

• Required health warnings

• Etc. 

The consultation considers whether these details should follow a more consistent format across all products. This should make it easier for consumers to compare products while ensuring important safety information remains prominent and easy to read. 

Flavour Naming & Descriptions

Flavour descriptions are another significant part of the consultation. It doesn’t focus on the flavours themselves. The government is examining whether certain names or descriptions may contribute to youth appeal. 

This includes questions about references to confectionery, desserts, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, and imaginative or highly stylised flavour names. The consultation seeks evidence on whether more descriptive or standardised naming conventions could help reduce the appeal of vaping products to young audiences without affecting adult consumers. 

What to remember: At this stage, no final decision has been made regarding any of the packaging requirements. The consultation is designed to ask whether changes in these areas would be beneficial to the broader public health goals, and if so, how any future regulations could be implemented. 

What Are the Proposed Changes to the Appearance of Vape Devices?

Packaging is one area under review. The consultation also considers the appearance of vape devices themselves. The government is exploring whether certain design features could make vaping products more appealing to children and young people, and whether introducing restrictions could help reduce that appeal. Here again, the goal is to reduce the appeal for a younger audience without affecting the way adult smokers can access and understand vaping products. 

So, while packaging can be updated easily, changes to the appearance of devices have further repercussions, namely on product development, manufacturing, and branding across the whole industry. As a result, the consultation here examines which design features, if any, have the greatest impact on consumer appeal. 

Colours and Finishes

One proposal under consideration is whether vape devices should be subject to restrictions on their colours and finishes. Indeed, many products currently available on the UK market are offered in visually striking designs, like: 

• Bright shades

• Metallic finishes

• Gradients

• Etc. 

These designs help distinguish brands and product ranges. 

The consultation asks whether limiting devices to a narrower range of colours or more neutral finishes could reduce their appeal to younger audiences. Similarly, questions are also raised about decorative coatings and premium-looking finishes that may contribute more to a product’s visual identity than to its practical function. 

But, here again, policymakers recognise that colours can help adult smokers identify different products and nicotine strengths. 

Device Shape and Overall Design

Beyond colour, the consultation explores whether the physical shape and design of vape devices could influence youth appeal. Indeed, some products may resemble everyday consumer electronics or lifestyle accessories through their rounded edges, compact profiles or particular styling. 

Should products that are designed to look like toys, novelty items, or other non-vaping objects face additional restrictions? This is the question the government is asking. However, it is worth noting that there is no proposal to standardise the shape of every vape device. At this point in time, the consultation only asks whether some design features are more likely to attract underage users. 

Branding on Devices

The consultation also questions the branding displayed directly on vape devices. This affects logos, decorative graphics, and other printed elements that can reinforce a product’s identity even after the external packaging has been removed. 

The consultation asks whether limiting on-device branding could reduce the promotional effect of products. However, this wouldn’t eliminate all identification details on devices. 

Digital Screens & Decorative Features

Not all vape devices are made the same. Some modern designs include digital displays and animated lighting effects, or even additional decorative features that give a modern look and feel without necessarily adding to the function. Could it be that these elements contribute to the appeal of the product, especially among younger consumers? This is a question the government is asking through the consultation to understand whether restrictions should be considered. 

All questions reflect the government’s broader aim of understanding which aspects of product design genuinely influence consumer behaviour. The consultation is designed to gather evidence that would shape future regulations. It’s important to understand that just because a question is being asked, it doesn’t mean it will necessarily become part of vape regulations. Stakeholders have until October to take part in the consultation and submit their answers. 

What Are The Possible Changes About Retail Displays?

The consultation examines different aspects of vaping, including the way vaping products are displayed in retail settings. 

For consumers, tobacco regulations already feature strict rules about product visibility. These govern how cigarettes and other tobacco products can be displayed for sale in the UK. Now, the government is asking whether similar principles need to be applied more widely to vaping products. 

What is the goal of this line of questions? The aim is to explore whether reducing the visibility of vaping products in shops could help discourage underage interest without affecting adult consumers who wish to purchase them. By affecting them, this means making it more difficult to find or identify the right products, or making products less accessible. 

Product Visibility in Shops

One proposal specifically considers whether vape products should become less visible within retail environments. This could mean limiting how products are displayed to customers before a purchase is made, or introducing new requirements for display cabinets and storage. 

What the consultation is trying to find out here is whether reducing product visibility in retail could tangibly prevent young people from becoming interested in vaping in the first place. Part of the consultation is to evaluate the practical implications for retailers, especially specialist vape shops that need customers to be able to compare products before committing to a purchase. 

This only focuses on how products are presented BEFORE the point of sale. It doesn’t affect the ability to purchase vape products for adults. 

Requested Displays & Customer Access

The consultation also explores situations where products may be displayed only after a customer has requested to see them. Similar arrangements already exist for tobacco products, where retailers may show products briefly during a sales transaction without creating a permanent promotional display. 

Can comparable approaches work for vaping products? This is a question the consultation is asking. It also asks how it might affect both retailers and consumers. The proposals are intended to balance access for adult customers, which means reducing unnecessary product visibility without affecting the way adults can access the product(s). 

Shop Layout & Point-of-Sale Displays

The consultation also tries to understand the matter of placement for vaping products within retail premises. This means that it reviews different layout options, including: 

• Where products are positioned behind counters
• Whether they should be placed in other areas that are visible to customers

• Where they are placed in display cabinet

The product placement could significantly reduce impulse interest among young people and children, as long as it doesn’t affect efficient customer service. In order to evaluate this proposal, the consultation examines the changes to product placements and the different challenges retail settings may face as a result. Responses from large retailers and independent businesses are particularly valuable in this instance. 

Although no new rules have been introduced at this point, retailers may wish to monitor the progress of the consultation and any subsequent legislation. Naturally, new display requirements will be announced and strictly regulated if they are adopted. But for businesses, this could mean updating entire shop layouts, replacing existing display units, reviewing merchandising practices, and even providing new training to keep their staff up-to-date. 

What Could These Proposals Mean for Adult Vapers?

The consultation may be primarily focused on reducing vaping among the younger generations, but there is no denying that future regulations would also affect adult consumers as well, both today’s adults and future generations too. 

For those who have intentionally switched from smoking to vaping, the packaging, branding, and in-store displays are not just marketing tools. They are part of the key elements that help adult consumers pick their products: whether this is a matter of identifying their preferred products, comparing nicotine strength, or even choosing flavours they would enjoy. So, this raises the question of how the whole shopping experience is going to be affected if some of the proposed restrictions are introduced, even if the products themselves remain fully unchanged. 

Many changes are to be expected if some restrictions are adopted. 

Difficulty Recognising Preferred Brands

Firstly, embracing standardised packaging means that colours, graphics and branding have to become less distinctive. As a result, products from different manufacturers could begin to look more alike than they do today. So, rather than recognising a preferred e-liquid or device by its packaging, customers will need to rely heavily on the product name, and other specifications such as nicotine strength, device information, or flavour description printed on the label. While this may not seem like much, it could actually require a long period of adjustment because customers may be more familiar with remembering the packaging. 

Reverting Back to Tobacco

For adult smokers who have just recently made the transition to vaping, this can become even more challenging. Many new users spend time comparing different products before deciding which one best suits their needs. Packaging is a central part of the comparison process and also makes it easier to make the distinction between different types of devices (refillable versus disposable), different nicotine strengths, and different flavour ranges. So, if future regulations result in a more uniform appearance, retailers may need to place greater emphasis on providing clear product information and personalised advice to help these customers navigate the available options easily. Some consumers may simply choose to revert to something they are already familiar with, aka tobacco packaging. 

Additional Staff Training

Changes in retail displays could influence how consumers shop. If products become less visible or stored only behind cabinets in a similar way to tobacco products, customers may no longer be able to browse the full range independently before speaking with a member of staff. Instead, purchasing decisions could become more conversation-led. This is particularly true for specialist vape shops where staff are trained to explain the differences between products. If the staff on hand lack sufficient training, adult consumers may be left uncertain about what to purchase. 

Increasing Risk of Customers’ Mistakes

Another important consideration is consumer confidence. Familiar branding often provides reassurance that a customer is purchasing the same product they have used before. If packaging becomes more standardised, manufacturers and retailers may need to ensure consumers can still be guided to make the right purchase decisions. This means ensuring the product names, specifications, and labelling remain clear, highly visible, highly understandable, and consistent across all brands, so customers are less likely to make mistakes. 

Throughout its wider tobacco control strategy, the government has continued to acknowledge the role of vaping in helping adult smokers move away from combustible cigarettes. There is no intention of losing this advantage, which is why the consultation has been set in place. 

The consultation doesn’t propose. At no point is the government consulting on removing vaping products from sale or preventing adult smokers from accessing them. The many proposals focus on the visual presentation of products and the possible impact that changes to packaging, appearance and display could have. Consequently, this only lists some potential repercussions that changes would have for adult users if they were implemented. 

What Could These Changes Mean for Vape Retailers and Manufacturers?

For manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, the consultation is an opportunity to help shape regulations that would have a big operational impact across the vaping industry. The proposals have not been adopted yet, but they still provide a valuable insight into the government’s thinking and the areas where future regulations may appear. So, businesses throughout the supply chain are likely to assess how potential changes could affect areas of their activities: product development, merchandising, compliance, and customer experience. 

The Work Behind Revised Packaging Standards

Revised packaging standards could require extensive redesign work. If restrictions are introduced, existing packaging may need to be updated to comply with new legal requirements, even if the restrictions only apply to colours, branding, graphics, or flavour descriptions. 

The process extends beyond producing new artwork. Manufacturers would also need to review packaging specifications, work with printers and suppliers, and update regulatory information. They need to ensure that every product entering the market meets the revised standards before distribution. 

Challenges in Product Development

If restrictions are introduced on the appearance of vape devices, product development teams may need to reconsider important aspects of the design, including colour options, decorative finishes, what is printed on the device, and other features. On the one hand, these changes may appear relatively straightforward from a consumer perspective. But when it comes to implementing them across an entire product range, this can involve considerable planning, testing, and investment, especially for businesses operating internationally in countries that have different regulatory requirements. 

The Cost of Retail Display Areas

Physical stores may need to redesign their display areas. This could require replacing cabinets or altering the way customers view products before making a purchase. Yet, if displays become more restrictive, businesses may need to adapt their sales process to ensure their customers can still receive the information they need before buying. 

This is particularly true for independent vape shops that encourage customers to browse devices and e-liquids side by side. This approach typically ensures that customers can compare features and more effectively identify the options they are interested in. 

It’s fair to say that online retailers could also be affected if future packaging requirements lead to changes in product photography, descriptions, or marketing materials. Although the consultation focuses primarily on physical packaging and retail presentation, it is fair to say that updates on product appearance would naturally need to be reflected across websites, catalogues, and other digital customer-facing materials for consistency and compliance. 

A Word on Staff Training

We’ve already explained that staff training is a crucial part of implementing any new regulatory framework. Employees need to understand revised rules, explain products, and also guide customers using product specifications rather than distinctive packaging alone. For customers who are less knowledgeable about vaping, advice becomes a valuable part of the purchasing experience, particularly when restrictions remove distinguishing features. 

What About Transition Periods? 

Businesses would also need to consider practical implementation. Depending on the final legislation, there may be transition periods that allow manufacturers and retailers to sell existing stock while introducing compliant packaging and displays. This will require careful inventory management and supplier coordination. Additionally,b businesses need to make compliance a key part of their strategy planning to avoid unnecessary disruption. 

What Happens After the Consultation?

Once the consultation has closed, the government will review all responses submitted. The evidence will help determine whether the proposals should proceed as such, be amended, or be withdrawn altogether. 

If the government decides to introduce new regulations, it will publish its response to the consultation before setting out the final legislative changes and any implementation timetable. When required, the proposals will also pass through the appropriate parliamentary process before becoming law. 

Until then, the existing regulations governing vaping products remain in force. While the consultation provides a clear indication of the government’s priorities, it shouldn’t be viewed as a confirmation that the proposal will be adopted in its current form. 

The Tobacco and Vapes: Packaging, Appearance, and Display consultation represents another step in the UK’s evolving approach to vaping regulation. It examines whether some changes could help reduce vaping among children and teenagers while ensuring adults do not lose access to vape devices. 

As with any government consultation, the proposals are not yet law. The final outcome will depend on the evidence submitted by participants, including retailers, manufacturers, public health organisations, and members of the public. 

For consumers and businesses, the most important step is to stay informed. Understanding the consultation and following future legislative developments will help ensure everyone is prepared for any changes that may shape how vaping products are presented to UK customers.