By Pippa Starr
1 March 2025
Today, Australia’s new vaping regulations will come into force, promising stricter rules on product names, tighter packaging requirements, and ingredient limits. The goal? To curb youth vaping and prevent the black market from thriving. The reality? This policy is set to fail on all fronts, making it harder for smokers to quit, driving more vapers toward unregulated products, and failing to deter underage users from accessing illicit vapes.
Australia’s restrictive vaping policies have already fueled a thriving black market.
The prescription-only/pharmacy model, introduced in 2024, was intended to control access to nicotine vapes, but instead, it has created an unregulated supply chain where criminal networks now profit from selling dodgy, untested products to both adults and minors.
These new regulations will only push more vapers toward illegal products. By banning attractive branding and limiting ingredient choices, legal vapes will become less appealing and harder to obtain. But vapers especially those who rely on them to stay off cigarettes, will not simply quit overnight. Instead, they will turn to the underground market, where compliance is nonexistent, product quality is uncertain, and underage sales are rampant. We already have seen most smokers and vapers in Australia turn to the black market, which is clearly a public health policy disaster!
The NHS, Cancer Research UK, and the Royal College of Physicians and New Zealand Health all recognize that vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking and one of the most effective tools for quitting. Yet, Australia continues to take a prohibitionist stance, making it unnecessarily difficult for smokers to switch.
One of the most effective aspects of vaping for smoking cessation is the ability to personalize the experience. choosing flavors, nicotine strengths, and devices that work best for the individual.
These new restrictions on menthol concentration, nicotine limits, and flavor names will strip vapers of those choices only make quitting smoking even harder. In contrast, countries like the UK have embraced harm reduction, resulting in record-low smoking rates.
If Australian lawmakers were truly committed to reducing smoking-related deaths, they would regulate vapes as adult consumer products, sold in controlled environments with strict age verification, not make them so inaccessible that smokers give up and return to cigarettes.
Proponents of the new rules argue they will deter underage vaping which is now in freefall. But if past experience has taught us anything, it’s that banning legal, regulated products does not stop young people from accessing them, it only shifts supply to illegal channels.
Reports from the UK and other countries show that most youth who vape are already smokers or at risk of smoking, and that vaping has actually contributed to reducing youth smoking rates. When regulations are too strict, they create the very problem they aim to solve: a thriving illicit trade with no age restrictions!
A better approach? Enforcing strict retail licensing laws, cracking down on illegal sales, and providing accurate information to young people. Punitive measures alone won’t work, they’ll just push teens toward riskier options.
What’s the Solution?
Rather than doubling down on failed prohibition tactics, Australia should follow evidence-based models like the UK and New Zealand, where vapes are sold through licensed retailers with strict age verification but are accessible to adult smokers who need them. A balanced approach would:
Introduce a regulated, legal market: Allow vapes to be sold in age-restricted stores, just like alcohol and tobacco, with severe penalties for selling to minors.
Crack down on illegal sales: Instead of restricting legal products, invest in enforcement against the black market.
Educate, don’t misinform: Provide clear, science-based messaging about vaping’s role in harm reduction, rather than fueling fear-based narratives that drive smokers away from safer alternatives.
Today's new addition to already disproportionate regulations will not reduce youth vaping, will not help smokers quit, and will not eliminate the black market. They will only make things worse. If Australia genuinely wants to tackle the issues surrounding vaping, it must abandon its failing prohibitionist approach and adopt policies that prioritize harm reduction, public health, and consumer safety.
For a nation that once led the world in tobacco control, it’s time to stop repeating past mistakes, and start embracing solutions that work.
The Changes from today:
As of March 1, 2025, further amendments to the product standards in TGO110 have officially come into effect. These changes are part of the ongoing regulatory shift aimed at tightening controls on therapeutic vaping products in Australia. Here’s a breakdown of what’s changed and what you need to know moving forward.
Key Changes Effective March 1, 2025
Stricter Rules on Product Names
- Names cannot be attractive to children or adolescents
- Cannot be associated with food, beverages, confectionery, or cosmetics
- Must not suggest health benefits or imply the product is safe
- Cannot promote, exaggerate, or encourage use
Tighter Packaging & Labeling Requirements
- Restrictions on label colors and text sizes
- Clear and standardized warning statements
- Prohibitions on features like heat-activated inks or time-delayed embellishments
Ingredient & Nicotine Limits
- Only approved ingredients can be included in vaping substances
- Menthol concentration is capped at 20mg/ml
- Nicotine concentration cannot exceed 50mg/ml
- Maximum container sizes:
+ Individual vape liquid containers: 60ml max
+ Pods/cartridges (closed system): 5ml max
From March 1, 2025, only vaping products that meet these updated standards can be imported into Australia. However, retailers and suppliers within Australia have until July 1, 2025, to ensure all stocked products comply with the new regulations.
Further information: https://www.tga.gov.au/products/unapproved-therapeutic-goods/vaping-hub