E-cigarettes in the United States: data on market trends and the regulatory landscape - ECigIntelligence

14th May 2024: US - Federal: The White House has released a statement on what it refers to as “China’s unfair trade practices concerning technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation”, which it says “are threatening American businesses and workers”. In response, president Biden is directing his trade representative to increase certain tariffs. These include the tariff rate on lithium-ion batteries (used in non-electric vehicles), which will increase from 7.5% to 25% in 2026. This would impact batteries used in vaping and heated tobacco products.
14th May 2024: US - Federal: The next director of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) Office of Compliance and Enforcement will be John Verbeten. Verbeten comes to the CTP from the FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), where he served as the deputy director for import operations enforcement within the Office of Enforcement and Import Operations (OEIO).
9th May 2024: US - Iowa: House File (HF) 2677, which is awaiting the governor’s signature, would create a public directory where vapour products would have to be listed. HF 2677 has been met with some opposition by retailers in Iowa, as stated by a supporter of the bill, who emphasised that it would bring a positive outcome in order to stop the sale of “illegal Chinese vapes”.
8th May 2024: US - Federal: US Senate majority whip Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called on Brian King – director of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s Center for Tobacco Products – and Brian Boynton – principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice – to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the sale of unauthorised e-cigarettes, scheduled for 12th June 2024.
6th May 2024: US - Oregon: The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld a Washington County ordinance banning all flavoured tobacco sales. The ordinance was approved in 2022 but it was not enforced because a circuit court judge overturned it. Circuit judge Andrew Erwin wrote that prohibiting the sale of flavoured tobacco must come from the state, not the county. The county appealed the judge’s decision, and the Court of Appeals found that the county is not preempted by state law. Businesses will be inspected each year to make sure they are complying with the ordinance.
2nd May 2024: US - Federal: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the issuance of warning letters to 14 online retailers for selling unauthorised e-cigarette products. These warning letters cite the sale of disposable e-cigarette products marketed under popular brand names such as Elf Bar/EB Design, Esco Bars, Funky Republic, Hyde, Kang, Cali Bars and Lost Mary. According to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, among the more than 2.1m young people who reported current e-cig use, more than 50% said they used Elf Bar products and more than 20% reported using Esco Bar products. The retailers receiving these warning letters sold or distributed e-cigarettes in the US that lack FDA authorisation. Warning letter recipients are given 15 working days to respond with the steps they will take to address the violations cited in the warning letter and to prevent future violations.
2nd May 2024: US - California: Attorney general Rob Bonta has announced that the California Department of Justice is now accepting proposals for the 2024-2025 Tobacco Grant Program, which aims to reduce the illegal sale of tobacco products by providing approximately $28.5m in grant funding to eligible local agencies. The programme aims to reduce childhood addiction to tobacco products by supporting local partners who enforce the statewide retail flavour ban and similar local ordinances, and prosecute and penalise retailers who sell or market tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.
2nd May 2024: US - Federal: The US Marshals Service seized more than 45,000 unauthorised e-cigarette products valued at more than $700,000 in California. The seized products were mostly flavoured, disposable e-cigarette products, among them brands such as Puff Bar/Puff, Elf Bar/EB Design, Esco Bar and others. Brian King, director of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products, said: “FDA has been unequivocally clear that we are committed to using the full scope of our enforcement tools including seizures to hold those who peddle unauthorised e-cigarettes accountable. The writing is on the wall for those in the tobacco product supply chain who fail to heed the law.” This action represents the first time the FDA and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have seized tobacco products in coordination with the US Marshals Service.
30th April 2024: US - Florida: House Bill (HB) 1007 has been enacted. HB 1007 authorises the attorney general to establish a directory listing nicotine-dispensing devices considered attractive to minors. A device will be deemed attractive to minors if it has features that significantly appeal to under-age users compared with the legitimate benefits those features offer to lawful users of the product. The bill lists factors to take into account when reviewing these products.
24th April 2024: US - Federal: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued civil money penalties (CMPs) against 20 bricks-and-mortar retailers and two online retailers for selling unauthorised e-cigarettes, including Elf Bar. The agency previously issued warning letters to these retailers for selling these products, but follow-up inspections revealed that the retailers had failed to correct the violations. Accordingly, the agency is now seeking a CMP of approximately $20,000 from each retailer. According to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, Elf Bar was the most commonly used brand among middle- and high-school students who reported using e-cigarettes.
17th April 2024: US - Federal: Tobacco researchers Benjamin Toll and Tracy Smith – partnered with Brian King, director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – wrote a commentary in Nature Medicine that sets out the relative risk of e-cigarettes compared with traditional combustible cigarettes. They emphasised that among adults who have already tried FDA-approved cessation medicines, if the choice is between continuing to smoke traditional cigarettes or switching completely to e-cigarettes, then a complete switch should be encouraged. When Toll and Smith say that e-cigarettes have fewer toxicants and cause less harm than cigarettes, they are specifically referring to the 23 tobacco-flavoured e-cigarettes that have received FDA authorisation for marketing. They believe that doctors can reasonably share that list of FDA authorised e-cigs with people who are struggling to stop smoking.

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