Flavored E-Cigarette Ban Starts Tomorrow
Retailers must stop selling banned e-cigarette flavors Thursday or risk FDA enforcement action.
Feb 05, 2020
ALEXANDRIA, Va.—By tomorrow, retailers must ensure that all flavors except tobacco and menthol for cartridge-based e-cigarettes aren’t on their shelves in order to comply with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance.
On January 7, 2020, the FDA published final guidance banning most flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes, except for tobacco and menthol flavors, from the market. The FDA gave retailers until February 6 to sell-through current flavored cartridge-based products (such as JUUL, NJoy and Vuse) before they must be removed from stores.
The guidance permits retailers to continue selling e-liquid flavors used in open vaping systems and in disposable, single-use vape products.
Store signage can help alert customers to the flavor ban. NACS has prepared a simple black and white sign for downloading and printing. Download the sign here. The text reads:
PLEASE NOTE On January 7, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration published guidance banning the sale of certain flavored cartridge-based and pod-based e-cigarettes. Effective February 6, 2020, we are no longer allowed to sell flavored cartridge-based e-cigarette products with the exception of tobacco and menthol flavors.
For more information, please see the NACS Q&A on how retailers can prepare for the flavor ban.
Separately, a new law signed by President Donald Trump on Dec. 20, 2019, immediately raised the federal minimum age for purchasing tobacco products—including nicotine vaping products—from 18 to 21.
