Earlier this month, legislation in Alabama was signed into law that would prohibit c-stores from selling most vape products and instead moves these sales to adult-only vape shops.
According to Alabama.com, “Convenience stores throughout the state will have to remove flavored vape products under the new law. A representative with the industry, in recent days, argued that the proposal will devastate small businesses, noting that alternative nicotine products account for about 30% of convenience store sales.”
The industry has filed two lawsuits against the damaging and discriminatory law, which is based on incorrect information about the c-store industry and pushes consumers to vape shops with a poor record of age-restricted sales.
According to a statement from the Petroleum & Convenience Marketers of Alabama (P&CMA), the industry in the state filed suit against the Alabama ABC Board, its members and others in separate lawsuits in federal and state court seeking temporary restraining orders and further injunctive relief against the enforcement of the bill. P&CMA, along with Young Oil Inc., are the plaintiffs in the action filed in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery. P&CMA member Home Oil Company, Inc. filed suit in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama making similar claims and seeking similar relief as the federal court action.
Supporters of the law claim it is a move to stop youth sales of flavored vape products by moving the product to adult-only locations, assuming that specialty vape shops card at the door.
“The problem with this is that those stores are often actually the worst ones at making sure minors don't purchase the product,” said NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor. “The convenience store compliance track record is far, far better at selling age-restricted products, and so they’re essentially undermining their own stated goals when they do something like this.”
As tobacco products are still one of the convenience industry’s biggest trip drivers, the potential loss of income from these products and ancillary purchases could have a negative impact on the retail business, said Kantor. “That is a significant dynamic that is a concern for the whole industry with this law, and if there are any other laws like it in the future, that is something that should be considered.”
While Alabama is the first to enact this type of state-wide regulation, “there’s always the fear that bad ideas can get momentum and the potential for other states to take it up,” Anna Ready Blom, strategic advisor, government relations at NACS said.
At the root of the illicit vape issue, said Blom, is the gray area of which vape products are legal to sell or not. “FDA has not provided clarity with respect to this market and that has created this vacuum where illicit products, especially from China, have proliferated. And there hasn’t been enough enforcement of illegal sales,” Blom said.
With thousands of products in limbo awaiting approval and lack of clarity from FDA, convenience stores that are selling only FDA-approved vape products are at a disadvantage for selling responsibly. “There is a universe of products that are not approved but not illegal that anyone, including convenience stores, can sell. But the FDA has not made clear what’s in that universe,” said Kantor. “However, a lot of vape shops are willing to sell things that are clearly illegal that convenience retailers won't sell. And therefore, they are at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage for selling responsibly.”