{"id":26305,"date":"2025-09-04T08:58:43","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T08:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=26305"},"modified":"2025-09-04T08:58:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T08:58:48","slug":"dutch-doctors-file-complaint-against-snapchat-over-illegal-vape-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/dutch-doctors-file-complaint-against-snapchat-over-illegal-vape-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch doctors file complaint against Snapchat over illegal vape sales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dutch doctors have filed a formal complaint against Snap – the parent company of messaging app Snapchat – accusing it of failing to prevent the sale of illegal vapes to teenagers in the Netherlands.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint, which was submitted to the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), claims that Snapchat is breaching its obligations under the European Union (EU)\u2019s Digital Services Act (DSA) by allowing dealers to use the app to promote and sell nicotine products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for ACM confirmed it had received the enforcement request. \u201cAt this stage, we cannot comment on any further steps we may take; we will first review the enforcement request,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large fines of up to six per cent turnover<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If the ACM pursues the case, it will be escalated to the European Commission, which is responsible for oversight of \u201cVery Large Online Platforms\u201d such as Snapchat, with more than 45 million monthly users in Europe. Under the DSA, breaches can lead to fines of up to six percent of a company\u2019s global annual turnover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doctors, working under the foundation Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd (SRPJ), argue that despite promises from Snapchat to crack down, their investigations show teenagers can still easily access dealers on the platform. \u201cSnapchat is extremely popular among teenagers and is being misused by dealers to promote vapes,\u201d said lung doctor Wanda de Kanter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SRPJ has repeatedly raised the alarm over Snapchat. In June, the group accused the app of failing to protect Dutch children from vape dealers and promotional content. It warned the company that it was breaching EU rules designed to shield minors from online risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 8 August, Snapchat responded by promising stronger safeguards, including improved slang and emoji detection, more account blocks, and new parental controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dutch doctors say Snapchat\u2019s \u2018safeguards\u2019 have failed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But Dutch doctors have now said those steps have failed. A panel of 15 teenagers tested the app before and after the changes. While direct searches for \u201cvape\u201d were blocked, dealers were still easy to find through slang terms such as \u201csnabba,\u201d \u201cgerroes,\u201d \u201cpeuk\u201d and \u201csigaret.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWe see that more and more young people are becoming seriously addicted to nicotine through these products, with major consequences for their mental and physical health,\u201d said Dani\u00eblle Cohen, lung pathologist at Leiden\u2019s LUMC teaching hospital.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for Snap, which has its headquarters in Amsterdam, told Euronews: \u201cWe share their commitment to helping keep young people safe, and we have invested immense resources to stop bad actors from abusing our platform and to educate Snapchatters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, there is no single safety feature or policy that can eliminate every threat online or in the world around us. This is why we continuously adapt our strategies as bad actors change their tactics, and actively work with trusted third parties to improve our systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Netherlands banned flavoured disposable vapes in January 2024, though they remain widely available on the black market, often with nicotine levels far higher than the legal limit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A survey by the Trimbos Institute found that by 2023, a quarter of 12 to 16-year-olds in the country had tried vaping, with 14.3 per cent using a vape in the past month and four per cent doing so daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors warn that Snapchat\u2019s failures are fuelling what they call a \u201cvape epidemic\u201d that began around 2021, and are urging regulators to take stronger action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dutch doctors have filed a formal complaint against Snap – the parent company of messaging app Snapchat – accusing it of failing to prevent the sale of illegal vapes to teenagers in the Netherlands. The complaint, which was submitted to the Authority…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":26307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[329,334,340,186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-26305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-european-union","tag-global","tag-netherlands","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26313,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26305\/revisions\/26313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26305"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=26305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}