Ireland’s Underage Vape Sales Problem Isn’t Going Away

Ireland’s Underage Vape Sales Problem Isn’t Going Away

Ireland’s ban on selling nicotine-containing vaping products to under-18s has been in place since 22 December 2023, designed to reduce youth access and tighten age verification at the point of sale. But the latest enforcement figures suggest a persistent gap between the law and what’s happening in stores.

Data from the Health Service Executive (HSE) shows that between January and October 2025, inspectors carried out test purchases at 224 retailers and recorded 51 failures where vapes were sold to minors. More than one in five outlets tested were non-compliant.

It also reflects a worsening trend. In 2024, the HSE carried out 223 test purchases and recorded 40 failed tests. In 2025, failures rose to 51 in the first ten months, despite a similar volume of checks. This isn’t a short-term adjustment period. It’s ongoing non-compliance.

The enforcement framework is already in place. The HSE’s National Environmental Health Service leads inspections, and statutory test-purchasing powers introduced in March 2024 strengthened how the law is applied. Retailers caught selling to minors can face fines of up to €4,000 and up to six months in prison.

The compliance challenge goes beyond age checks. The HSE is also acting against wider breaches, including the sale of products deemed non-compliant with regulatory standards. Dozens of prohibition orders have been issued requiring retailers to stop selling certain vaping products—showing that risk sits across both age-verification and product compliance controls.

Ireland is considering further restrictions that could reshape the category, including proposals to ban single-use (disposable) vapes and tighten rules intended to reduce youth appeal, such as limits on flavours and packaging presentation. When enforcement data shows widespread failure under existing rules, it strengthens the political case for tougher regulation—and raises the stakes for retailers trying to demonstrate they are in control.

Independent audit results reinforce the same pattern. Serve Legal’s exclusive audit data shows geography is a notable factor of risk in vape sales, and Ireland remains a consistent outlier. Across 2023–2025, both disposable and refillable e-cigarette pass rates in Ireland typically sat in the 20–27% range, compared with the UK’s 74–80% compliance rate. Performance at this level usually signals systemic weaknesses: inconsistent ID-checking culture, uneven management reinforcement, and operational gaps that make it too easy for staff to “just complete the sale”.

So what can be done to see change?

• Make ID checks automatic, not optional: Adopt a strict Challenge 25-style standard and stick to it. “They looked old enough” will not prove due diligence.
• Build a refusal culture that staff can lean on: Staff need backing. If a colleague refuses a sale and then gets undermined, you’ve just trained the team to stop refusing. Make a log and encourage the team to use it.
• Engineer the sale so it can’t be rushed through: Till prompts, date-of-birth capture, supervisor overrides can help to slightly slow the transaction and forces a deliberate decision.
• Train for pressure, not policy: Most failures happen when customers push and staff are under pressure. This is why stress testing is so important.
• Identify high-risk times and staff cohorts: After-school periods, evenings, weekends, new starters, lone workers—this is where controls slip first. Understand weaknesses and invest into seeing them change.
• Audit, remediate, and re-test: Testing only matters if failure triggers action. Coaching, retraining, and rapid re-testing are what convert weak sites into controlled sites.

The blunt conclusion is that Ireland’s data is a warning sign. A failure rate above 22% isn’t a marginal compliance gap—it’s a signal that too many retailers still treat age restriction as a judgement call instead of a controlled process.

With enforcement activity increasing and new restrictions moving through the legislative pipeline, the retailers who act now to harden controls will be best placed to avoid the consequences later: fines, prohibition orders, and reputational damage that can outlast any enforcement cycle.

To discuss how Serve Legal can support you to increase compliance, evidence due diligence and protect brand reputation through compliance auditing, get in touch with our team. Want to see what this could look like first?

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