Hi everyone 
I wanted to write this announcement earlier, but until sufficient information was available, we didn’t want to give room for panic or speculation. However, by now, several official and unofficial pieces of information have come to light, and webshops have also spoken up, so we feel it makes sense and is necessary to speak up, as more and more questions are reaching us at Vaperina regarding the matter.
First of all, it’s important to clarify:
As an independent community platform, Vaperina is not affiliated with any webshop, company, or other economic player.
Therefore, we cannot provide substantive information regarding orders or the future of the webshops in question. We ask everyone to direct your questions concerning these matters directly to the customer service of the respective webshops.
So, what happened?
On May 22, 2025, the Pécs District Court ordered the one-month detention of four Hungarian men suspected of selling excise tax-liable, nicotine-containing e-cigarette refill liquid in Hungary through a Croatian company via webshop, without paying the tax. Between 2017 and 2023, the company was estimated to be liable for over 2.2 billion Hungarian forints in excise tax, which it failed to pay.
After the case became public, webshops based in Croatia became successively unavailable.
On May 26, JuicyVapour notified customers via email:
Update:
Since then – as reported by several users – the JuicyVapour and Liquid Aroma webshops have become completely unavailable.
Many have indicated that their orders placed with JuicyVapour are stuck, and they have not received any response since.
While some customers have received refunds, others have reported that the customer service email address is no longer working, making it increasingly questionable for others whether they can expect any further processing or compensation.
On May 26, LiquidHall also published a statement on their Facebook page:
I will reiterate here what I have already shared in another thread, which might answer some questions.
What might have happened?
According to the announcement, the period of commission for the alleged crimes (investigative phase) falls between 2017 and 2023. This coincides with the time (2017) when nicotine-containing products (refill liquids) became subject to excise tax in Hungary.
The damage value of over 2 billion forints mentioned in the announcement suggests that the authorities estimated hundreds of packages per day, which they “assumed” contained excise tax-liable nicotine-containing product(s), but of course, this amount may include other factors.
However, it is unlikely that every package was actually inspected or seized. Thus, it is very likely that the charge is based on representative sampling. This means that over the years, they intermittently conducted test purchases or officially documented orders (e.g., as part of undercover investigations, external witnesses, or NAV inspections), then analyzed them and drew general conclusions about the total sales period based on the results.
This method is legally known and applied, but it can be disputed by the defense if the evidence is not sufficiently substantiated, or if the alleged content cannot always be proven.
Supplement: @OPTomi’s response, which provides further useful information for a better understanding of the official actions.
From this, I believe everyone can draw the appropriate conclusion as to why the others are unlikely to take risks. This, of course, does not preclude the possibility that proceedings are also underway against the others.
We will close questions related to this and will direct everyone to this topic to avoid having to answer the same questions repeatedly.
Related topic: Bezártak a webshopok - Útmutató a tudatos tájékozódáshoz
