MHRA notification: what it is and why it matters when you buy

The MHRA is the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Under the UK's Tobacco and Related Products Regulations, nicotine vapes and nicotine e-liquids have to be notified to it before they go on sale.

Notification is the producer telling the regulator what the product is. It sits alongside the other core rules: tanks and pods of 2ml or less, nicotine bottles of 10ml or less, nicotine at 20mg/ml or less, and child-resistant packaging.

You will not usually see the word MHRA on the box. But it is part of what separates a genuine product from one that has been shipped in from who knows where.

Notification is how the regulator knows what is on the UK market. A product that has skipped it has skipped a basic step, and that is often a clue that other rules have been skipped too, such as nicotine strength or tank size.

The MHRA publishes details of notified products on gov.uk, so the information is out there if you want to dig. In practice, the simplest protection is buying from a retailer that only sells products made for the UK market.

That is the same logic behind the duty stamps that become compulsory on every bottle from 1 April 2027: one more visible sign that a product has gone through the proper channels.

Where you buy makes the biggest difference to whether you get a genuine, notified product. A UK retailer with a proper help page, returns policy and age checks has every reason to stick to the rules. A seller working out of a social media inbox has fewer reasons.

That is not snobbery; it is just how accountability works. If something goes wrong with a product from us, you can reach us through our help page and use our returns policy.

Tap the option that matches where you are thinking of buying.

You cannot check a product's notification just by looking at it, but you can check the things that genuine UK products always get right. If any of these are wrong, the product is not made for the UK market, and it is very unlikely to be properly notified.

The checklist below is quick to run in a shop or while browsing online. Our guide to TPD rules explains each limit in more detail.

Tick them off next time you shop somewhere new.

It takes under a minute, and it is the same list whether you are buying a pod kit or a box of nic salts.

Notification has been around for years, but the system around it is growing. Alongside the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, which got Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, a product register and a licensing scheme are still to come.

Meanwhile, the vape duty started on 1 October 2026, with stamps required on all vape liquid from 1 April 2027. Together they add more layers of checks between a product and your basket.

Flip the cards to see what is fact and what is assumption.

None of this changes what you need to do today: buy from a proper UK retailer.

One last question. It is about the basics: who gets told about nicotine products before they reach the shelves.

If you get it right, you have the key idea: genuine nicotine vapes and e-liquids sold in the UK go through notification to the MHRA, on top of meeting the 2ml, 10ml and 20mg limits. Buying from a proper UK retailer is the easiest way to make sure all of that has been done for you. Nicotine is addictive, so it is worth being choosy about where it comes from.

Three regulators, three jobs.