Two illegal vapes were seized every minute in 2025, according to new UK council data, with a total of 1.2m illicit vapes taken off high streets this year.
There have been over 14,000 cases of businesses identified as being in possession of, stocking, or selling illegal vapes in 2025.
This comes as a surge of illegal nicotine products infiltrate local shops – 7.15m illicit cigarettes, 257,000 illegal disposable vapes and nearly 10,000 nicotine pouches have been seized over the last 12 months.
Shoppers need to be aware of the tell-tale signs, as over half (54%) of UK vapers believe they’ve been duped into buying an illegal vaping product.
The data, gathered from a freedom of information (FOI) request from local councils across the UK, was conducted by UK online vaping retailer, Vape Club, as part of its annual Illegal Vapes report. Consumer insights are the result of their 2025 survey of 2,000 vapers across the UK
The study found a significant proportion of UK vapers have purchased suspected illegal products from local convenience stores (36%), followed closely by local vape shops (33%) and market stalls or street traders (26%), highlighting how easily these products are accessed.
If consumers are concerned they purchased an illegal vape, its authenticity can be verified against the official register on the Medicine & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency website, where all legal vaping products in the UK are required to be listed.
Dan Marchant (left), Vape Club director and founder member of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) said: “The irresponsible sale of illegal and non-compliant products has done enormous damage to the reputation of an industry that, in its legitimate form, exists to help adult smokers move away from cigarettes.
“More needs to be done to crack down on rogue vape shops. Trading standards are doing the best they can with the resources available to them, but they simply don’t have the boots on the ground to deal with these issues head-on.
“If you find an illegal vape, you can report the retailer to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice, or you can use the Vape Vigilance feature on the UKVIA’s website, which will also be directed to the relevant Trading Standards authority.”
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