150,000 puffs — and still one step ahead of regulation

From 12,000 to 150,000 puffs on a website targeting the Swiss market

These are not simply products spotted on Asian platforms. AT Switzerland has identified devices of this kind being offered directly to Swiss consumers.

The Only4Today online shop displays its prices in Swiss francs, accepts payment by TWINT, among other methods, and offers postal delivery within Switzerland. Its product range alone illustrates the scale of the current escalation:

• RandM Tornado: 12,000 to 15,000 puffs;
• VOZOL Rave: 40,000 puffs;
• VOZOL Ice & Sweet and Star Click: 50,000 puffs;
• WASBAR: 60,000 puffs;
• Vapsolo Quads 4-in-1: 80,000 puffs;
• WASPE 4-in-1: 100,000 puffs;
• WASPE 6-in-1: 150,000 puffs.

The model claiming 100,000 puffs is offered for around CHF 36, while the model claiming 150,000 puffs costs around CHF 40.

In just a few years, the market has therefore moved from a few hundred puffs to six-digit numbers.

These figures should, of course, be understood for what they are: manufacturers’ marketing claims. There is no standardised method for guaranteeing that a device advertised as providing 150,000 puffs will actually allow a consumer to take that many.

But even if claims such as “100K” or “150K” are partly marketing, the volumes and technical designs advertised for these products are particularly concerning.

Up to 64 ml of liquid claimed for a single device

The manufacturer of the WASPE AIVIOU 150K presents its product as providing up to 150,000 puffs and claims a total capacity of up to 64 ml of e-liquid.

The device has a USB-C rechargeable battery, multiple coils and a system allowing several flavours to be used within the same device. Variants with different nicotine concentrations are also marketed depending on the country.

By comparison, Swiss regulations limit the capacity of tanks in disposable e-cigarettes and single-use cartridges containing nicotine to 2 ml. Nicotine-containing refill containers are limited to 10 ml.

An advertised volume of 64 ml therefore represents the equivalent of 32 2-ml tanks.

This does not automatically mean that a multi-tank or multi-cartridge system should legally be considered a single 64-ml disposable tank. This is precisely where the problem begins: technical designs are evolving and becoming increasingly complex, while regulation continues to rely largely on product categories defined at a particular point in time.

A WASPE 150K with a nicotine concentration of 5% contains 64 ml of liquid at approximately 50 mg/ml, amounting to around 3,200 mg (3.2 g) of nicotine in total. By comparison, a smoker typically absorbs on the order of 1 mg of nicotine per cigarette. The total amount of nicotine contained in a single one of these devices therefore corresponds, in order-of-magnitude terms, to the amount of nicotine absorbed from smoking approximately 3,000 cigarettes, or around 150 packs of 20 cigarettes. This comparison relates solely to the quantity of nicotine and does not mean that using such an e-cigarette is actually equivalent to smoking 3,000 cigarettes: the proportion of nicotine in the liquid that is actually aerosolised and subsequently absorbed by the user depends greatly on the device and how it is used.

We tested it: no effective age verification

AT Switzerland wanted to go beyond simply observing the products available online and determine under what conditions these products can actually be purchased in Switzerland.

We therefore conducted several test purchases on the Only4Today website using different identities. The orders included e-cigarettes claiming a very high number of puffs and, in some cases, products offered with an advertised nicotine concentration of 5% — equivalent to 50 mg/ml, whereas the maximum concentration permitted in Switzerland is 20 mg/ml.

The outcome of these test purchases is particularly concerning.

During our various orders, no effective verification of the purchaser’s age was carried out.

The products could be selected, ordered and paid for, including via TWINT, without requiring an identity document or any other evidence capable of establishing the purchaser’s age.

Since the Federal Act on Tobacco Products and Electronic Cigarettes (Tobacco Products Act) entered into force, supplying e-cigarettes to persons under the age of 18 has been prohibited. In online commerce, however, this prohibition can only be effective if mechanisms are in place to genuinely verify that the purchaser has reached the legal age.

Simply declaring oneself to be of legal age, or possessing a means of payment, does not in itself constitute reliable age verification.

Our test purchases therefore highlight a potential twofold compliance problem: first, products whose advertised characteristics appear to exceed the limits laid down by Swiss legislation; and second, the absence of effective age verification during several purchases conducted by AT Switzerland.

This finding is all the more concerning because it requires neither specialist knowledge nor searching the hidden corners of the internet. These products are openly offered on a webshop targeting the Swiss market and can be paid for by virtually anyone, including minors, using one of the country’s most widely used payment methods.

The “big puff” is not disappearing — it is changing shape

The problem, however, goes far beyond a single webshop or a handful of products.

The first puffs were technically relatively simple: a battery, a pre-filled tank and a coil. Once the liquid or battery was depleted, the entire device was discarded.

The new generation is far more sophisticated.

Rechargeable batteries, pre-filled or replaceable cartridges, multiple tanks, multiple coils and several flavours within the same device make it possible to create hybrid systems that are becoming increasingly difficult to fit into traditional regulatory categories.

This development is not unique to Switzerland.

Recent observations of the US market indicate that strictly disposable devices are losing ground to systems using pre-filled or rechargeable cartridges. Yet this does not mean that the “big puff” model is disappearing.

High capacity is simply migrating to different technical designs.

In other words, regulating the “disposable” format does not necessarily regulate the commercial model behind it.

Regulation may target disposable devices; manufacturers can respond by adding a rechargeable battery. A limit applying to a single tank may encourage systems containing multiple cartridges or chambers. When one design becomes problematic or regulated, a new generation can rapidly take its place.

It is a genuine regulatory arms race.

40K, 60K, 100K, 150K: escalation becomes a selling point

The inflation in puff counts is not merely a consequence of technical development. It has become a central element of marketing.

Packaging and product names now prominently display these figures as though they represented successive generations: 40K, 50K, 60K, 80K, 100K, 150K.

Added to this are multiple flavours, digital displays, battery and liquid indicators, adjustable power or airflow, and different operating modes. Some devices even allow users to switch from one flavour to another without changing e-cigarettes.

We are therefore far removed from the image still sometimes associated with the e-cigarette as a simple device enabling an adult smoker to replace cigarettes with a nicotine-delivery product.

This has become a rapidly evolving consumer electronics industry in which novelty, capacity, the number of flavours, technological sophistication and ever-increasing performance claims have become selling points in their own right.

Rechargeable does not mean sustainable

This transformation also raises an environmental problem.

The fact that a battery can be recharged via USB does not automatically make a product sustainable.

These devices still contain plastic, a lithium battery, electronic components, coils and tanks. When the coils or other non-replaceable components reach the end of their useful life, a substantial part — or even the entirety — of the device becomes electronic waste.

The distinction between “disposable” and “rechargeable” may therefore be far less meaningful from an environmental perspective than commercial terminology suggests.

A product that is used for a few weeks before being discarded remains fundamentally a very short-lived product, even if its battery has been recharged several times in the meantime.

Switzerland’s problem is no longer just the law, but its enforcement

Since 1 October 2024, Switzerland has had federal legislation regulating e-cigarettes and, in particular, prohibiting their supply to minors.

On paper, therefore, the rules exist.

But a rule only has an effect if compliance is monitored.

The test purchases conducted by AT Switzerland raise very concrete questions in this regard. How can e-cigarettes advertised with nicotine concentrations of 5% be offered to Swiss consumers? How are products claiming such substantial capacities being controlled? And how can several orders be completed without effective age verification?

More fundamentally: who is monitoring online commerce, and what happens when a potentially non-compliant product is identified?

This example highlights a fundamental weakness in the current system. The Tobacco Products Act can set nicotine limits, regulate capacities and prohibit sales to minors; if the market is not systematically monitored and the rules are not effectively enforced, these protections risk remaining largely theoretical.

The issue is therefore not simply whether legislation needs to be strengthened. We must also ensure that the legislation already in place is actually enforced.

We need to monitor supply, not just consumption

This technological race also demonstrates why e-cigarette surveillance cannot rely solely on population surveys.

By the time a new type of product becomes visible in consumption statistics, the market may already have moved on to the next generation.

Manufacturers, by contrast, have access to almost immediate information. Online sales, brand- and model-specific data, consumer feedback and social media trends enable them to rapidly identify what works and adapt production accordingly.

The cycle can be extremely short:

sales and consumer reactions → market analysis → production adjustments → new product generation → new sales.

Switzerland must be capable of observing the market at a comparable speed.

This requires active surveillance of supply: systematic monitoring of online retailers, identification of new products, test purchases, verification of advertised or actual capacities and nicotine concentrations, assessment of age-verification systems, identification of importers, and examination of new technical designs.

The fact that AT Switzerland can identify and order devices online claiming up to 150,000 puffs demonstrates that this type of surveillance is far from an abstract concern.

Foreign products directly accessible from Switzerland

The problem is not limited to online shops established in Switzerland or directly targeting the Swiss market. It is also extremely easy to order the same products from foreign websites that deliver directly to Switzerland. Several European webshops sell e-cigarettes claiming 60,000, 100,000 or even 150,000 puffs, sometimes with nicotine concentrations of up to 5% (50 mg/ml), and explicitly list Switzerland as a delivery destination. Some even advertise delivery within a few days from warehouses located in the European Union. With just a few clicks, Swiss consumers can therefore access an international supply of products that far exceed the limits laid down in Swiss legislation. This highlights the considerable challenges that cross-border online commerce poses for market surveillance and the effective enforcement of regulation.

After 150,000 puffs, what comes next?

The recent history of e-cigarettes should give us pause.

600 puffs became 5,000. Then 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 and 100,000. We have now reached 150,000.

At the same time, the once fully disposable puff is becoming rechargeable, multi-cartridge, multi-tank and multi-flavour.

Faced with this development, two problems overlap in Switzerland.

The first is regulatory: categories and rules must be capable of keeping pace with a market that can rapidly transform the technical architecture of its products.

The second concerns enforcement: the rules that already exist — particularly those relating to nicotine and the protection of minors — must actually be monitored and enforced.

The test purchases conducted by AT Switzerland demonstrate just how urgent this second issue has become.

A ban on sales to minors without effective age verification is not protection. A legal limit without market surveillance is not a guarantee. And regulation that is always chasing the previous generation of products will remain perpetually behind the industry.

AT Switzerland once again calls for stronger surveillance of the e-cigarette market in Switzerland, including systematic monitoring of online commerce and test purchases, as well as rapid clarification of the regulatory status of new ultra-high-capacity systems.

Because while we are still discussing “puffs”, the market has already moved on to 100,000 and 150,000 puffs.

150,000 today. What about tomorrow?