{"id":111757,"date":"2018-03-13T09:15:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T13:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/?p=111757"},"modified":"2018-03-13T09:37:51","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T13:37:51","slug":"study-confirms-canadas-about-to-end-legal-confusion-mostly-benefited-vape-shops-over-c-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/study-confirms-canadas-about-to-end-legal-confusion-mostly-benefited-vape-shops-over-c-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Confirms Canada’s About-To-End Legal Confusion Mostly Benefited Vape Shops Over C-Stores"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the adoption of Bill S-5 on vaping<\/a>\u00a0is expected in the coming months which will bring order, for the first time, to the vaping market and legalize the sale of fluids with nicotine, a recent study of the firm ECigIntelligence<\/a>, which DepQu\u00e9bec<\/strong> obtained, shows just how much the legal uncertainty surrounding this product category in Canada for the past 15 years has mostly been beneficial to vape shops and detrimental to c-stores.<\/p>\n

Indeed, there are now an estimated 1,000 vape shops across the country based on the same profitable formula, i.e. providing fluids with nicotine illegally<\/strong> which is exactly what the vast majority of vaping enthusiasts are looking for.<\/p>\n

According to data from the European research firm, the Canadian market generated last year, in 2017, an annual sales volume of $160 million dominated largely by vape shops.<\/p>\n

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According to ECigIntelligence<\/a>, three-quarters of sales are from brick and mortar retailers, but the vast majority of these are vape shops and NOT convenience stores. Most vape shops offer nicotine fluids \u2014 which is prohibited in the absence of any licensed manufacturer known in Canada \u2014 while traditional convenience stores, especially those that are among large chains, refrain from such sales due to their muddy legal status.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As validated by\u00a0DepQu\u00e9bec<\/strong> after a few calls, the vast majority of vape shops \u2014 if not all \u2014 openly sell nicotine fluids in-store, which is technically illegal since not one manufacturer in Canada has yet received a license to sell any. Indeed, the demand for this product is fueled for the most part by consumers seeking an alternative to tobacco and therefore turning to nicotine fluids in priority. In fact, it is well known that vaping enthusiasts who only seek flavor without any drugs \u2014 be it nicotine, THC or other \u2014 are all but a tiny minority of users.<\/p>\n

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This vape shop is a branch of a retail chain called Vape D\u00e9pot<\/a>. Located in Varennes, Quebec, it does not openly advertise the sale of fluids with nicotine but has plenty to sell inside. It defines itself as “The No1 Alternative To Tobacco”<\/strong> which plainly suggests the sale of nicotine. This commercial message making an association between vaping and tobacco could become prohibited with the adoption of Bill S-5 or at least, submitted to the regulatory authorities of Health Canada for approval.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Quebec government came to the vape shop rescue with Bill 44<\/h5>\n

In Quebec, the vaping market is the most active in Canada proportionnally: with 240,000 estimated users, or just under a quarter of the current estimated number of smokers, the market generated $ 40 million in sales in 2017 according to ECigIntelligence<\/a>, the vast majority, or 80%, being sales generated in stores and not online.<\/p>\n

In addition, vape shops occupy a larger share of the market: there are 350 in Quebec that capture 70% of the market against only 10% for traditional retailers. The majority of Quebec users, like the rest of Canada, are leaning towards open vaping systems, in which one must replace liquids and not just cartridges.<\/p>\n

Since the adoption in Quebec of Bill 44 on tobacco control in 2015, vape shops must submit to a series of regulations: registering their business, prohibiting minors’ access within their premises, not offering free samples, not sampling products inside the store and others. That being said, the Bill confirmed their legal status and also gave them a huge competitive advantage, that of being the only channel with the ability to showcase their products and accessories in-store while convenience stores, because they allow access to minors, no longer have this right to showcase ecig products since 2015 and must hide these and their accessories from customer view as is the case for tobacco products.<\/p>\n

According to ECigIntelligence<\/a>, a significant proportion of vape shops are now organized into chains: nearly a quarter of the 1,000 vape shops listed belong to chains featuring brands such as\u00a0Ez Vape<\/a>,\u00a0La Vape Shop<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Vape D\u00e9pot<\/a>, the latter two being based in Quebec. Sales of online vaping products are prohibited in Quebec, but this does not prevent those from occupying 20% \u200b\u200bof the market, again contributing to the legal confusion surrounding the marketing of the product.<\/p>\n

In Ontario, Quebec’s neighboring province, there is an estimated clientele of 300,000 users served by 400 vape shops, more than Quebec but less in proportion, given its higher population.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the adoption of Bill 44 in Quebec, Ontario passed the Smoke-Free Ontario Act<\/a>, which more strictly regulates the marketing of vaping products, notably by establishing the legal age to 19 years old.\u00a0ECigIntelligence\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0suggests that this new piece of regulation could slow down the growth of the vaping market in Ontario.<\/p>\n

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The distribution of vape shops in Canada, according to ECigIntelligence<\/a>, demonstrates the dominance of the Quebec and Ontario markets and also the accelerated development of the Quebec vape shop retail network (click on the map to enlarge).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the adoption of Bill S-5 on vaping\u00a0is expected in the coming months which will bring order, for the first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":111762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,1737],"tags":[1598,1596,1597,1064,1063],"class_list":["post-111757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsdep","category-tobacco-ecig","tag-ecig","tag-nicotine-en","tag-vape-shops-en","tag-vaping","tag-vaping-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/vaping2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}