ECID Numbers for Vaping Products Explained

E Liquids, Vape Tanks and ECID Numbers

It is important to ensure that you vape only e liquids which are genuine, safe and compliant with the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). Counterfeit e liquids are sometimes hard to spot as are non-compliant flavours. Every e liquid sold by vapekit.co.uk has been sourced appropriately and is a genuine product of a legitimate manufacturer that is fully compliant with the TPD. There are many ways to check an e liquid. One of these is to confirm that the product packaging features an ECID number as it must do to comply with TPD regulations.

What is the TPD?

The EU Tobacco Products Directive 2014/14/EU (TPD) became law 20th May 2016. The legislation was introduced to improve the quality and safety of vaping products while reducing the potential harm to children. It requires that e liquids are subjected to emissions testing, are notified to a designated authority, and are given an ECID number. In the UK, the authority to which products must be notified is the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The TPD stipulates that e liquid packaging must include the product’s ECID number. E liquids and vape tanks are subject to the TPD regulations as they may contain or deliver nicotine and nicotine can be derived from tobacco leaves.

What is an ECID number?

A European Community Identification (ECID or EC-ID)) number is a unique identifier which is assigned to products for regulatory purposes. All e liquids and vape tanks which are sold in the UK must be notified to and registered with the MHRA and assigned a ECID number. The number should be printed on the packaging. The format for the number is:  01303-18-00002.

Not only should every e liquid flavour have an ECID number, each nicotine strength of that flavour should be assigned a unique number. In other words, Vampire Vape Heisenberg 6mg has a different ECID number to the 12mg version of Heisenberg. Each nicotine strength of an e liquid is essentially considered to be a separate and unique product.

How to check that your e liquid is registered

If you purchase your e liquid from a bone fide retailer, it will almost certainly be a genuine product from a legitimate brand which tests and registers its products as required by the TPD. But if you wish to double check that any e liquid has been registered, you can do this online via the government website. This involves searching through the lengthy list of notified products. These are presented in excel spreadsheets. The ID column of each spreadsheet features the ECID numbers of the products listed.