It is thought that these products had two issues:
1. There were no standard warnings concerning potentially toxic materials.
2. The vendor could not produce the EC safety certificate for the USB charger plug (the tiny 1-piece plug that has a USB A plug on one end and a 510 (or similar) socket on the other, that plugs into a USB socket and has the mini
ecig screwed into the other end.
These are technical violations of (1) the packaging laws for consumer products, and (2) the documentation requirements. No person would be at risk at any time of a poisoning incident (unless they did not realise that the product might be potentially toxic and gave cartomizers to their children or pets to play with and suck on), or an electrical shock incident (as a 5 volt 'shock' does not exist - 5 volts being the USB output).
Of course, I could be wrong about the exact products that the recall concerned, but a photo of the product seems to indicate this is correct.
It needs to be realised that (a) the UK is the only country in the world where ecigs are regulated (by means of numerous consumer protection laws and the enforcement mechanisms that are actually in place and operational to enforce these laws). The enforcement arm is the Trading Standards organisation and the Ministry that controls them, BIS, aka the Dept of Business (in full, the Department of Business, Industry and Skills).
You might describe these enforcement actions as petty; on the other hand it does demonstrate several things: that there is both a regulatory structure and an enforcement mechanism; that ecigs are under careful inspection at this time; and that no serious contamination issues exist, only minor documentation or labelling infringements.
I cannot confirm that my analysis of these enforcement actions is absolutely correct without access to the full documentation of the enforcement action.
