Prime drink lookalike disposable vapes are being sold at convenience stores in the UK.
The ‘Pryme’ disposables are packaged in the same colours as the viral hit drink and branded with a similar font. Many retailers are selling the devices at £6.99 each.
Its arrival has sparked fears it will attract the Prime drink’s young target demographic to try e-cigarettes, and lead to a surge in underage vaping, which Trading Standards officers recently reported as the most pressing “high street threat”.
It is understood the products are made in China and distributed from locations in Manchester and London.
A London address on the box of the Pryme devices is for a registered office and company formation service. Images and footage of the stock have been posted on social media platform TikTok, including from a now deleted account named @prymevape.
Online vape retailer IndeJuice said it was mounting a legal challenge against the product, seeking to protect its proprietary ‘authenticity guarantee’ mark for is customers – called Prime Certification – which it has held as a trademark since 2018.
“Not only does such branding infringe IndeJuice’s established portfolio of Prime trademarks, but it also undermines the hard work of reputable independent vape businesses that have invested heavily in ensuring that younger demographics and non-smokers remain uninterested in vaping,” said IndeJuice founder and CEO George Muharib.
“We firmly oppose the marketing practices of products that imitate the Prime drink’s appearance and branding, particularly when the demographic most familiar with the beverage is heavily skewed towards a younger generation,” he added.
IndeJuice is urging the Advertising Standards Authority and Trading Standards to intervene “to ensure that any efforts to blur the line between the Prime drink and the vaping industry are swiftly eliminated from the market”.
The viral success of the Prime drink range has led to a spate of similar trademark applications in the vaping category in recent months.
Ten trademark applications containing the word Prime relating to e-cigarettes have been published or are under examination, including Disposable Prime Hydration Bar, Prime Bar, Prime Liquid and Disposable Prime Crystal.
“Most of these applications were submitted close to Christmas, suggesting that more Prime-branded disposable vapes are on the way to our UK market as we speak,” said Muharib.
According to latest figures from Action on Smoking & Health, current vaping among children aged 11 to 17 is up from 4% in 2020 to 7% in 2022. The proportion of children who admit ever having tried vaping has also risen from 14% in 2020 to 16% in 2022.
Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) said its members were dealing with a “surge” of illicit vape sales by specialist vape shops, convenience stores and corner shops.
Earlier this month, David MacKenzie, chair of the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS), said disposable vapes were “attractive to children”.
“Why does a smoking cessation device have to be these bright colours? There’s no reason for that at all. They’re clearly designed to sell to young people,” he said.
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