The deadline forTPD compliance was set to a particular day and a particular month back in 2016,since then most of the regulators in each of the European countries have takena light touch approach to overseeing the market.
In recent monthswe have started to see an increase in regulator activity, one of those areaswhich has effected several manufacturers is the use of extension/bubble tubeswhich have been supplied alongside the 2ml tube, and removable plugs which havebeen used to restrict a tanks volume to 2ml. Any refill containers suppliedwith a squonker must comply with the associated regulations. And only a small partof EU member states currently prohibit the sale of more than 2ml non-prefilled tank.
Such products havealready been reported for sale in European markets where the tank size for bothprefilled and empty tanks is restricted to 2ml. The United Kingdom is one suchmarket and how such actions could become a problem in that country is asfollows:
The regulator isthe MHRA, they are centrally based, they handle the notification invoicing andhave the final say on what products can and cannot be sold. A second muchlarger organisation referred to as ‘trading standards’ works with the MHRA andto enforce the law, trading standards has a regional presence so they oftenvisit local stores and businesses to ensure the products being sold comply andare approved for sale. Any products that are found not to match the details inthe notification are reported to the MHRA and the MHRA contacts themanufacturer, other products that are not notified are being removed to preventthem from being sold.
Every country hasits own process for enforcing the law and when problems do arise the requiredsolution will differ from country to country. The solution will also differdepending on whether the manufacturer has been warned about the same, or othercompliance issues previously.
If such solutionsare not agreed with the regulator and quickly applied this could lead to asituation where products are removed from the approval list and eventuallybanned from sale. If this should occur regulators are obliged to share thatproduct information with other countries who may decide to do the same.
If anymanufacturers do experience such a problem please forward the relevantcommunications to us as soon as possible so a solution can be agreed andapplied.