We Vape

Background

We Vape was set up as a UK limited company in 2020.¹ It has lobbied against the regulation of e-cigarettes. Companies House records show Mark Oates is the sole Director of We Vape, which has one employee.¹

Oates is also sole director of another company, the Snus & Nicotine Pouch Users Alliance (SNPUA).²³ SNPUA was originally set up in 2018,⁴ and its current website was registered in 2022.⁵

For both these companies, the nature of the business is described as “Activities of political organisations”.¹

Oates is also the director of a consultancy company registered in the UK, Oates Consulting Ltd.⁶

Relationship with the Tobacco Industry

Oates is a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute (ASI),⁷ a think tank with a history of accepting funding and working closely with the tobacco industry.

We Vape

When it was set up, We Vape did not have a funding statement on its website.⁸ Since 2022, it has stated that it is funded by “donations from individual vaping consumers”.⁹¹⁰

Oates Consulting

In 2023, the US-based Consumer Choice Center (CCC), which has received funding from tobacco companies, paid Oates Consulting over US$300,000.¹¹ In 2024, CCC paid Oates Consulting a further US$522,000.¹²

Snus & Nicotine Pouch Users Alliance

CCC also set up the World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA, launched in 2020) and Considerate Pouchers (2023).¹³ Considerate Pouchers is “supported by” the Snus & Nicotine Pouch Users Alliance.¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶ For more on these products and tobacco company interests see Snus and Nicotine Pouches.

Campaigned Against E-cigarette Regulation

UK

Since 2023, We Vape has run a campaign on its website and on social media called ‘Save Flavours’, urging readers to write to their MPs and engage in government consultations.¹⁷¹⁸ The World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA), funded by the CCC, has run a similar ‘Save Flavours’ campaign. See World Vapers’ Alliance for details.

In November 2024, after the Tobacco and Vapes bill was introduced in parliament, We Vape published findings from market research it had commissioned, focusing on predictions of illicit purchasing (raising the threat of illicit trade is a common industry tactic).¹⁹²⁰ In December, Oates urged retailers to respond to UK government consultations.²¹²²

Scotland

In February 2021 a video conference roundtable meeting was organised by Holyrood Magazine about the role e-cigarettes could play in meeting Scotland’s target of a tobacco free generation by 2034. The meeting was attended by MSPs Donald Cameron (Conservatives), Emma Harper (SNP), Richard Lyle (SNP) and Brian Whittle (Conservatives).²³ Mark Oates was also present. In his speech he highlighted the cost of smoking, and suggested that “vaping can put £2,000 – £3,000 a year into some of the poorest people in the UK’s pockets.”²⁴

In June 2022, an investigation by The Ferret revealed We Vape had engaged with MessageSpace, a London-based public relations firm, to help them develop a lobbying campaign. The campaign, called #TellNicola, targeted a Scottish Government consultation into whether new rules should be introduced to limit the ways e-cigarettes can be advertised and promoted.²⁵

MessageSpace managed Facebook adverts encouraging people to oppose the regulations and respond to the consultation which ran between February and April 2022.²⁵ MessageSpace had been used in 2014 for an anti-plain packaging campaign launched by Forest. For more information, see industry funded third party campaigns against plain packaging.

We Vape also hired a mobile billboard in Edinburgh as part of the campaign. The advertisement read: “Tell Nicola to back vaping in Scotland. Vaping is safer than smoking.” In a campaign video to promote the event, Oates said the Scottish government’s proposals would “have a detrimental effect on the number of smokers who quit through vaping.”²⁶

Wales

We Vape encouraged people to respond to the Welsh Government’s consultation on the “Tobacco control strategy for Wales and delivery plan”, which ran between November 2021 and March 2022. We Vape urged people to “inform them of the benefits of vaping and other harm reduction products.”²⁷

COP 9 Lobbying

We Vape launched the #BackVapingSaveLives campaign to lobby the UK Government to support e-cigarettes on the “international stage” and ensure “harm reduction is front and centre to the FCTC and COP9 process”.²⁸ The World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is an international treaty that aims to reduce the demand and supply of tobacco. The We Vape campaign launch event took place in July 2021 and among the speakers was Martin Cullip from the New Nicotine Alliance to discuss “how the UK can lead the world in embracing safer alternatives to smoking at COP9.”²⁸ #BackVapingSaveLives included a postcard campaign, targeting British officials.²⁸

We Vape also contributed to a report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Vaping in July 2021, titled “Inquiry into UK Tobacco Harm Reduction Opportunities Post-Brexit: Achieving a Smoke-Free 2030”. One of the report’s recommendations was that:

2) The DHSC should fully embrace the concept of tobacco harm reduction both domestically in the Tobacco Control Plan, as well as internationally at the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Conference of the Parties 9 (FCTC COP9) later this year.²⁹

The report also said that the UK should “consider its options in relation to future funding” for the WHO and the FCTC, should the consensus at COP 9 on newer nicotine and tobacco products be contrary to domestic policy.²⁹

In November 2021, during the week of COP 9, We Vape organised a protest outside the UK Parliament which featured a mobile billboard bearing the slogan “COP 9 A COP OUT” and “BORIS BACK VAPING AT COP 9”.³⁰ Mark Pawsey, who set up and is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group  for Vaping attended the rally.³⁰

For more information, see Interference around COP 9 & MOP 2.

Presence at party conferences

In October 2021, a fringe event was held at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester titled “The Golden Opportunity: How Britain can embrace tobacco harm reduction”.³¹ It was organised by ASI in partnership with Japan Tobacco International (JTI), and included panellists from the Institute of Economic Affairs (which also has financial links to the tobacco industry) and JTI, as well as Mark Oates.³¹ During the event Oates argued that smokers weren’t switching to newer nicotine and tobacco products because they were unaware of their potential benefits.³²

A virtual New Statesman event titled ‘How does England go smoke-free by 2030?’ was run alongside the Labour Party Conference in 2020. Philip Morris International (PMI) sponsored the event, which featured Mark Oates alongside Moira Gilchrist from PMI and Alex Norris MP, then Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care.³³

Relevant Link

• We Vape website

Tobacco Tactics Resources

• Adam Smith Institute
• Consumer Choice Centre
• E-cigarettes
• Nicotine Pouches 
• Cigarette Companies Investing in Snus
• Interference with Endgame Policies