Juul trials ‘lockable’ C1 e-cigarette for UK vapers







Legal control

Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the number of high-school teenagers using e-cigarettes had become an “epidemic”.





Juul UK boss Dan Thomson told the Financial Times newspaper that the C1 could only be bought and used after customers went through “stringent checks” to verify their age and identity.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Ash, said the C1 had the “potential” to prevent younger people getting access to e-cigarettes.


“Requiring adherence to data protection laws to prevent this from happening is essential and needs to be carefully monitored,” said Ms Arnott.

Data logging

Mr Thomson said the locking system for the e-cigarette could be set to automatically switch on when it was not being used or was away from the phone to which it was linked.

Juul said it was also looking at updates for its app that would stop the C1 being used in public areas such as schools.

Via the app, owners will be able to monitor:

  • how often they vape
  • how many puffs they take
  • locate their device if it is lost

Juul acknowledged that it does gather the data itself, but said it was only to help manage customers’ use of its products. It said it would not sell or share the information without users’ explicit permission.

A similar app-controlled e-cigarette called the Vype iSwitch made by British American Tobacco went on sale in the UK in December.