NZ Regulations are coming, what should we expect?

Big tobacco’s ‘non profit’ groups and special interests are proceeding with their assault on the vape industry in the USA. The FDA has accelerated their timeframe for vape products to apply for PMTA which could mean the end of smaller vape vendors. With regulations soon to be announced in New Zealand we look at what indications the Government has made to date and compare two major regulatory regimes that other western countries are pursuing. We believe there is a risk that the NZ government will over regulate our industry and this could kill off many of the smaller juice makers in New Zealand.

PMTA shows Big Tobacco’s influence in the USA, will the New Zealand Government do the same?

Big developments in the USA vape market are underway; a Maryland district court judge recently released a judgement that accelerated the timeline requiring US vape companies to apply for PMTA (pre-market tobacco approval) from the FDA. Vape companies had been working with a timeline of late 2021 for PMTA submission, Judge Grimm (appropriately named) has rushed that forward to 10 months from May 2019 with a further 12-month grace period until products without PMTA need to be removed from shelves.

Unfortunately, we can’t lay the blame directly with Judge Grimm or the FDA for the new PMTA regime, the response is no doubt directly related to the American Pediatric Associations lawsuit alleging that the FDA was to blame for the burgeoning ‘youth epidemic of teen vaping’ in the USA.