LONDON

A group of Dutch doctors has filed an enforcement request with the country's regulators against Snapchat, the major US social media platform, accusing it of failing to curb the sale of illegal vapes to minors in the Netherlands despite promises, local media reported on Wednesday.

Doctors from the Leiden University Medical Center, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, and the Youth Smoking Prevention Foundation have taken on Snapchat and threatened legal action for failing to prevent the sale of illegal vapes on its platform.

It comes after Snapchat representatives and Dutch doctors met in June to discuss the issue, after which the social media platform promised short-term improvements.

However, when 11 children were asked to search for vapes before and after those measures, they found virtually no difference between 607 dealers before and 615 after, using simple search terms like "cigarette dealer" and "vape sales."

"They're simply not doing enough," Danielle Cohen, a pulmonary pathologist at Leiden University Medical Center, told Dutch broadcaster RTL, according to the NL Times.

The doctors then filed an official enforcement request with the Dutch regulator, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), accusing Snapchat of violating the Digital Services Act (DSA), which stipulates that companies to prohibit the sale of illegal products on their platforms and protect minors from unsafe content.

In a statement to the TRL, the Dutch watchdog said they are reviewing the doctors' request, adding: "The protection of minors is one of the spearheads of our supervision."