The proposed regulation introduces a new "consumption" rule for batteries: all portable devices must have user-replaceable and removable batteries.

How is the regulation process in the European Union? Firstly, the proposal needs to be approved by the Council, and then the relevant Commission will make the final decision.

The measures proposed by the new regulation are as follows: firstly, all portable devices must have user-replaceable and removable batteries. Secondly, non-removable batteries will be prohibited (manufacturers will be given 42 months to adapt their business). Thirdly, disposable e-cigarettes must be banned.

"After three and a half years from the entry into force of the regulation, batteries integrated into portable devices must be designed in a way that end users can easily remove and replace them," summarizes the website of the European Parliament.

According to the Commission, metals such as lithium and cobalt, which are used in batteries, can become critically important resources and critically harmful to nature. The European Union acknowledges its guilt in inaction and insufficient response to the issue of the excessive volume of lithium used in many industries.

As explained by British sociologist Francis Thirlway, people from lower social strata, especially those who already have heavy family responsibilities and mental burdens, find it difficult to make the effort to learn how to use a complex vaping device with many removable parts. Disposable devices meet the need for simplicity of use in the same undemanding way as tobacco cigarettes, which do not require maintenance.