Youth Access to Nicotine Pouches: Online Vs. Offline

• Due to a regulatory loophole, UK minors can legally purchase nicotine pouches
• New legislation aims to introduce a legal minimum age
• Most users try pouches for the first time aged 33; only 3% before 18
• Minors are most likely to access pouches from ‘offline’ corner shops
• Responsible retailers like Haypp enforce strict age verification to protect youth access

At the moment, there is no legal minimum age requirement for the purchase of nicotine pouches in the UK.

This is in contrast to countries such as Sweden, where a person must be at least 18 years old to purchase nicotine pouches, and the USA, where the minimum age is 21.

The lack of any minimum age requirement in the UK is the result of an unfortunate loophole in UK law.

Nicotine pouches are a relatively new product in the UK and are not covered by existing regulations that cover other nicotine-containing products such as cigarettes or vapes.

This is because while pouches contain nicotine, they do not contain any tobacco. Nicotine pouches are therefore categorised under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 rather than regulations designed to limit the sale of adult products.

This means that, unlike tobacco products or vapes, there is as yet no legal minimum age to purchase nicotine pouches.

This legal loophole will be closed by the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which is currently working its way through Parliament.

However, until this law comes into force, there are valid concerns that young people may be able to access nicotine pouches from unscrupulous retailers.

We surveyed almost 1300 nicotine pouch customers from Haypp and its sister site, Northerner, in the UK and asked them what age they were when they first tried pouches.

Based on the responses, the typical pouch customer is 33 years old when they first try a nicotine pouch. Just 3% of the pouch customers surveyed said they had tried nicotine pouches before the age of 18.

The survey also asked whether respondents believed it was easier for minors to purchase nicotine pouches online or from brick-and-mortar stores.

Interestingly, the majority of survey respondents – 61% – believe it is easier for minors to purchase pouches online rather than in a brick-and-mortar store.

This perception, however, does not reflect reality.

56% of those who say they purchased nicotine pouches while under 18 bought them from corner shops.

31% say they sourced pouches from friends, and 17% said they bought them in supermarkets. Only 21% said they had purchased them online.

There therefore seems to be a perception that online shopping poses a greater risk for underage access to regulated products than offline, although the evidence does not in fact bear this out.

These responses align closely with the experience of UK vape users, which is described in the Haypp Vape Report 2024.

For the vapers surveyed, those who purchased vapes when underage were twice as likely to have bought them from brick-and-mortar shops rather than online retailers.

A critical factor in the prevention of underage access to adult-only products is maintaining robust and reliable age verification procedures. This can often be a point of difference between online and offline shopping.

In brick-and-mortar stores, age checks are usually done face-to-face by staff, whereas online retailers typically rely on digital age verification systems.

Digital systems can enforce mandatory checks more consistently and maintain a traceable record, whereas in-store verification is often at the discretion of the staff member on duty.

Online verification processes remove the potential for human error or employee discretion when assessing a potential customer’s age. This ensures a more consistent application of the legal age verification requirements.

Until the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is passed, retailers have a critical role to play in ensuring that these products are only accessible by adults.

Unfortunately, there have already been a host of stories in the media about young people buying nicotine pouches in local shops and online. It is clear that there are unscrupulous retailers out there who are willing to sell these products to young people.

As a global company with a reputation built on quality and trust, responsible retailing and preventing underage access are at the core of everything we do. Haypp and its sister brand Northerner operate 100% customer age verification before an order can be placed.

Once the Tobacco and Vapes Bill becomes law, there will be an opportunity to introduce an appropriate regulatory framework for nicotine pouches.

In the absence of regulation, however, responsible retailers must step up and play their part to ensure only adults can access nicotine pouches.

New regulation is only as effective as its enforcement, but a combination of robust enforcement, smart digital solutions, and responsible behaviour by retailers can ensure adult freedom of choice and youth protection go hand in hand.