California: Online e-cigarette retailers flout sales restrictions

In California, online e-cigarette retailers often fail to comply with regulations on age verification, shipping methods and flavor restrictions, researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California, San Diego, report.[1].

To limit youth access to vaping products, the Preventing Online E-Cigarette Sales Act of 2020 banned the use of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to ship vaping products and required age verification upon delivery through identification. Restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco were also enacted in 8 U.S. states (including California) and 392 cities or counties.[2].

Products easily accessible online

While restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products have been passed in California, they do not always cover e-commerce. For example, in 2022, California Senate Bill 793 banned the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products at retail locations statewide, but left it up to counties to implement these restrictions online.

For the study, researchers asked 16 people to purchase flavored vaping products online from 78 different retailers and have them delivered to their homes. Eight buyers were from the city of San Diego, where an ordinance restricts the sale of flavored tobacco products, including online sales.

The other eight buyers came from other communities in San Diego County, which do not have the same online restrictions. The sales bans apply only to physical retail locations. The results showed that delivery did not differ significantly between buyers in these two jurisdictions. Of the 156 attempted transactions, 73 %s were processed and 67 %s were delivered. Of the total deliveries, 811 %s were made by UPSP, despite the ban. Additionally, 9 %s of these products came from services such as UPS and FedEx, which have policies prohibiting the delivery of tobacco and vaping products.

No age check upon delivery

Overall, of the deliveries made, just 1,130 shoppers had their ID scanned, while more than three out of four shoppers (78,130) reported having no interaction with the delivery staff. 15,130 shoppers reported having been in contact with the delivery person upon receipt but had no ID check. Finally, 6,130 shoppers had their ID checked but not scanned, according to the survey results.

According to the director of the American Lung Association, the online sale of vaping products is very problematic because, in addition to the postal service's failure to comply with the law, retailer websites do not perform any prior age verification of the buyer.

In France, the National Committee against Smoking (CNCT) had established similar findings concerning the online sale of vaping products. Out of around fifteen websites monitored in 2023, 80% of them do not display an information banner prohibiting the sale of vaping products to minors and only one website has set up a reinforced control system to prevent sales to minors.

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[1] Harati RM, Ellis SE, Satybaldiyeva N, et al. Online Retailer Nonadherence to Age Verification, Shipping, and Flavor Restrictions on E-Cigarettes. JAMA. Published online November 11, 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.21597

[2] Jon Healey, Online vape retailers ignore rules meant to protect minors, new UCSD study finds, Los Angeles Times, published November 12, 2024, accessed November 13, 2024