Category: Product Information

From 1 October 2026, the UK Government will introduce Vaping Products Duty, a new excise duty that will apply to vaping liquids sold in the UK.

We’ve already received a number of questions from customers asking what this means, whether prices will increase and if there’s anything they need to do before the changes take effect.

This guide explains everything you need to know.

What is Vaping Products Duty?

Vaping Products Duty is a new UK excise duty that applies to all vaping liquids, whether they contain nicotine or not.

The duty covers products including:

• 10ml nicotine e-liquids
• Nicotine-free e-liquids
• Shortfills
• Nicotine shots
• Prefilled pods and cartridges

Unlike VAT, which has applied to vaping products for many years, this is an additional Government tax on vaping liquids.

How much is the new duty?

The Government has confirmed a single flat rate of £2.20 per 10ml of vaping liquid.

As VAT is also charged on the final selling price, if the full duty is passed on to consumers the increase could be approximately:

Product	Government Duty	Approx. Increase Including VAT
2ml Pod	£0.44	£0.53
10ml Bottle	£2.20	£2.64
50ml Shortfill	£11.00	£13.20

These figures are provided as a guide. The final retail price increase will vary depending on how manufacturers and retailers choose to absorb or pass on the additional costs.

When does it start?

The new legislation comes into effect on 1 October 2026.

From this date:

• Vaping Products Duty becomes payable.
• New vaping products released for sale in the UK must carry an official Vaping Duty Stamp.
• VAT will continue to apply as normal.

What are Vaping Duty Stamps?

HMRC is introducing Vaping Duty Stamps to help identify legitimate products that have had the appropriate duty accounted for.

These secure stamps will be attached to the retail packaging of vaping products released for sale in the UK from 1 October 2026.

Will vaping products become more expensive?

Almost certainly.

The introduction of Vaping Products Duty increases costs throughout the supply chain, affecting manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers alike.

While every business will make its own pricing decisions, customers should expect to see price increases across much of the UK vaping industry.

Will every vaping brand be affected?

Yes.

The legislation applies across the vaping industry, regardless of the manufacturer or retailer.

Whether you vape Purity, Halo, Elfliq or another brand, the new duty will apply.

What happens to products already on the shelves?

This is one of the questions we’re asked most frequently.

The good news is that products already manufactured or imported before the new rules take effect can continue to be sold during the transition period.

However, from 1 April 2027, all vaping products sold outside duty suspension must carry an official Vaping Duty Stamp. After this date, unstamped products can no longer be legally sold through normal retail channels.

Should I stock up before October?

Many customers are considering buying extra e-liquid before the new duty comes into force.

While some customers may wish to purchase their favourite products before October, there’s no need to panic buy.

At Puffin Clouds we’ll continue working closely with our suppliers to maintain stock and offer one of the UK’s largest online selections of Purity products throughout the transition.

What does this mean for Puffin Clouds?

Like every UK retailer, we’ll need to adapt to the new legislation.

Our commitment, however, remains exactly the same:

✔ One of the UK’s largest online ranges of Purity products

✔ Official UK stock

✔ Fast dispatch

✔ Friendly, knowledgeable customer service

We’ll continue working hard to keep our prices as competitive as possible while maintaining the high level of service our customers have come to expect.

Key Dates

Date	What Happens
1 October 2026	Vaping Products Duty comes into force. Duty becomes payable and all new products released for sale must carry a Vaping Duty Stamp.
1 April 2027	Transition period ends. All vaping products sold outside duty suspension must carry a Vaping Duty Stamp.

Related Reading

You may also be interested in our latest article explaining the recent Puffin Clouds pricing and delivery changes, including our first Purity price review since 2016.

Thank You

The vaping industry continues to evolve, and Vaping Products Duty represents one of the biggest changes we’ve seen in recent years.

We’ll continue to monitor developments and keep our customers informed whenever important updates become available.

If you have any questions about Vaping Products Duty or how it may affect your favourite products, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you for your continued support.

At Puffin Clouds, we’ve always believed in offering great value, genuine products and excellent customer service.

Since 2016, we’ve worked hard to keep our prices unchanged despite significant increases in supplier costs, Royal Mail charges, packaging and other operating expenses. For almost a decade we’ve absorbed these increases wherever possible, but unfortunately this is no longer sustainable.

To ensure we can continue offering the UK’s largest range of Purity e-liquids, we’ve made the difficult decision to update our pricing and delivery charges.

What’s Changing?

Purity 10ml E-Liquids

Quantity	New Price
1–5 Bottles	£4.99 each
6–11 Bottles	£4.79 each
12–23 Bottles	£4.59 each
24+ Bottles	£4.39 each

Purity Shake ‘n’ Vape (50ml)

• £15.99 each
• 3 for £42

Purity PURE, Atomic & Royal Seven

• £9.99 each
• 3 for £24

Delivery Changes

To help cover the significant increases in Royal Mail and fulfilment costs, we’ll also be making the following changes:

Service	New Price
Royal Mail Tracked 48	£4.50
Royal Mail Tracked 24	£5.50
FREE Tracked 48 Delivery	Orders over £50

Loyalty Discount

As promised, our PuffinSave 10% Loyalty Discount will continue to be honoured until 31 August 2026.

We know many of our customers have been with us for years, and we wanted to ensure everyone still receives the full benefit of the loyalty scheme.

Our Commitment

While prices are changing, what won’t change is our commitment to providing:

✔ The UK’s largest range of Purity products

✔ Official UK stock

✔ Fast, reliable dispatch

✔ Friendly, knowledgeable customer service

We’d like to thank every customer who has supported Puffin Clouds over the last decade. Your continued loyalty has helped us become one of the UK’s leading specialists in Purity products, and we’re committed to continuing to offer the widest range and the service you’ve come to expect for many years to come.

Thank you for your continued support.

We realise many of you will have seen the disturbing news stories coming from the USA, where there have been 380 cases of respiratory disease reported among ‘otherwise healthy young people’, which US officials claim are caused by vaping.

As a responsible and honest vaping business who takes the health and safety of our loyal customer base into constant consideration, we feel it is only right that we should inform you of the facts as we currently know them.

Firstly, we can be very clear that there have been no reported illnesses linked to vaping in the UK.

Secondly, in the US and much of the international media, there is no reasonable distinction between vaping products designed as a harm reducing alternative to smoking and vaping illicit drugs.

The experts are telling us that all of the available evidence so far suggests that the unfortunate victims of this outbreak have been using black market THC (marijuana) vape products or other homebrew e-liquids. Some of these bootleg products contain synthetic cannabinoids like spice and are not products bought from or produced by reputable manufacturers, but in fact from street dealers.

“Unlike the US, all e-cigarette products in the UK are tightly regulated for quality and safety by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and they operate the yellow card scheme, encouraging vapers to report any bad experiences”.

Martin Dockrell, head of Tobacco Control at Public Health England

From what we know, the most likely cause of the illness is Vitamin E Acetate.

Vitamin E acetate is a common food additive which is used in topical skin treatments and is not known to cause any harm when ingested. However it does have oil like properties, which means that when vaped it is likely to cause the kinds of respiratory symptoms that have been reported – shortness of breath, chest pains and coughing. The Washington Post have reported that the FDA have stated that ‘nothing unusual’ has been found in the nicotine containing e-liquids that have been submitted to officials. However this is not being reported by the media, and it seems the key information wasn’t relayed to the president before he made his somewhat awkward announcement this week.

In the UK we have very robust regulations surrounding the production and distribution of vaping products. These regulations came into effect on May 20th 2017 and are known throughout the EU as the Tobacco Products Directive or TPD. Once transposed and established within UK law, we named it the TRPR or Tobacco and Related Product Regulations.

We have a strict list of banned ingredients which includes anything with carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic properties, formaldehyde, Diacetyl and many more. There is an obligation to conduct emissions tests and create full toxicological dossiers on all nicotine containing e-liquids. This information must be submitted to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency before the product can be placed on the market. This ensures that our consumers can have complete faith in the products that they are purchasing.

“In Britain, you can check on the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) website whether the product you’re using has been notified and can be legally sold.”

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

Fortunately, here in the UK our Public Health Experts have been quick to respond to these stories and allay any fears that vapers in the UK may have.

“These cases are worrying and need investigating but advice from all official bodies in the UK is that it is always preferable to vape than to smoke. These reports should not change that advice”

Paul Aveyard, a professor of behavioural medicine at the University of Oxford

“There is no situation where it would be better for your health to continue smoking rather than completely switch to vaping”

John Newton, Director of Health Improvement for Public Health England

At Puffin Clouds, we make the safety of our customers the top priority. All E-Liquids we sell at Puffin Clouds are EU TPD compliant. This includes US made brands like Purity. Purity even go one stage further and have all their e-liquids independently tested to ensure no trace of harmful ingredients such as Diacetyl and Acetyl Propionyl. These lab reports are available on the Halo/Purity website or directly from us.

It wouldn’t be right to publish this article without highlighting some of the dangers of vaping as we see them. Short Fill E-Liquids (no nicotine) are not regulated by the UK/EU Tobacco Products Directive and this is something that we believe needs addressing. We may not sell the vast range of short fill e-liquids that other retailers sell, but all ours have TPD compliant 10ml equivalents, ensuring the ingredients of every short fill e-liquid we sell have been properly tested.

We always say to our customers that vaping is 95% safer than smoking (NHS England) but there is a 5% danger that we probably won’t know about for 20 years. Not vaping at all is the safest solution without question, however, vaping is a lot safer than smoking.