ENDS 2023 CONFERENCE, MAY 23-24, AMSTERDAM

The ENDS Conference in Amsterdam was two days of debates and discussions centred around some of the most important topics currently facing the industry.

Topics included regulation and taxation, the impact of flavour bans, the potential impact of the forthcoming FCTC COP 10 in Panama and how to dispose of disposable vapes.

It was chaired by Arcus Compliance Managing Director Robert Sidebottom and featured some of the industry’s most influential experts and speakers from around the world.

UKVIA Director General John Dunne said the argument that only children liked vape flavours was ‘quite preposterous’ and said there was no place in the vaping industry for companies who used cartoon characters in their products.

He said Trading Standards departments were ‘woefully under-resourced’ to adequately enforce vape regulations and Robert Sidebottom highlighted the ‘ridiculously low’ number of prosecutions and fines for vape retailers who broke the law.

The Arcus Compliance MD said the entrepreneurial and scientific elements of the vaping industry could ‘achieve greater things by working closer together’ and highlighted the ‘desperate need’ for high quality research data.

Other standout topics included Jeannie Cameron, CEO of JCIC International, explaining why COP10 could be ‘make or break’ for the global nicotine market and World Vapers’ Alliance Director Michael Landl arguing why flavours matter and why prohibition never works.

It was great to hear the ‘reasons to be cheerful’ segment from Tom Gleeson, Trustee, NNA Ireland who told the conference: “There are 87 million people who vape worldwide and nine million of those are in countries with full vape bans so it is clear that the demand for a safer alternative to smoking is overwhelming.”

Well said Tom. We couldn’t agree more.