WASHINGTON – The tobacco big RJ Reynolds is threatening to sue small vape retailers if they don’t cease promoting flavored vapes, in keeping with two letters obtained by STAT.
The letters, each of which have been despatched in March, give the vape retailers just some days to verify they’ll not promote flavored tobacco merchandise. Failure to conform might end in “authorized motion, and the prices, attorneys’ charges, and hostile publicity to which a lawsuit would topic [the vape shop],” the letters warn.
The letters, which have been despatched to shops in New Jersey and Alabama, additionally warn that the retailers are violating native legal guidelines regulating the sale of flavored tobacco. The New Jersey letter additionally copies the county prosecutor the place the vape store is situated, in an obvious try to notify the native authorities of the violation.
The letters are the most recent instance — and a marked escalation — of Reynolds’ marketing campaign to pressure a crackdown on unlawful vaping merchandise. In February, the corporate petitioned the Meals and Drug Administration to ban flavored disposable vapes, and it’s supporting laws in Congress that might do the identical.
The letters additionally spotlight tobacco firms’ rising frustration with the FDA’s scattershot enforcement method towards flavored vapes. Whereas all of those merchandise are at the moment unlawful, the FDA has solely issued warning letters to a smattering of producers. One in all Reynolds’ letters, for instance, notes that the store is promoting Elf Bars, an more and more common disposable vape, which the FDA has not taken any enforcement motion in opposition to up to now.
The letters prompted a combined response from each critics of e-cigarettes and vocal proponents of selling vaping as a safer different to cigarettes.
Eric Lindblom, a senior scholar at Georgetown College’s O’Neill Institute, who’s crucial of vaping firms, argued that Reynolds’ efforts might in the end assist public well being — particularly given the FDA’s struggles to police the market of flavored vapes — however, he added, “there’s one thing distasteful about these sorts of heavy-handed anti-small enterprise techniques.”
“Reynolds shouldn’t have to do that,” added Lindblom. “FDA might have taken care of this drawback.”
Clive Bates, an impartial guide and vocal proponent of tobacco hurt discount, additionally criticized Reynolds.
“I don’t suppose Reynolds ought to be hounding vape retailers for promoting life-saving merchandise to their common clients,” Bates wrote in an electronic mail. “It shouldn’t be choosing on little guys, however urgent federal bureaucracies to do their job, and do it higher.”
An organization spokesman argued that the letters “present the significance that Reynolds locations on eradicating these unlawful merchandise from retailer cabinets and away from underage customers.”
Reynolds’ authorized threats additionally come on the heels of a 2022 letter that it despatched to its personal retailers and wholesalers, warning that they “have an obligation to behave responsibly in their very own gross sales and advertising and marketing practices, together with by promoting solely merchandise that could be legally marketed.” That letter, which STAT additionally obtained and which is dated June 20, 2022, warned that promoting unlawful merchandise might end in “penalties as much as and together with termination of your [Reynolds] contract.”
The sooner bulletin didn’t, nevertheless, point out that the corporate may begin suing vape retailers.
It’s unclear what number of letters Reynolds has despatched to vape retailers. A spokesperson mentioned that the corporate has despatched related letters to “retailers throughout the nation that we realized have been promoting unlawful merchandise in violation of flavored tobacco bans,” however didn’t specify what number of letters had been despatched.
Reynolds’ deal with imposing flavored tobacco bans is noteworthy, given the corporate has actively opposed taste ban laws throughout the US. Most just lately, the corporate requested the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to overturn California’s flavored ban on flavored vapes and menthol cigarettes. The corporate subsequently launched a line of “crisp” cigarettes, which authorized advocates have argued violate the state regulation. Reynolds has argued the cigarettes will be legally marketed within the state.
The 2 letters STAT reviewed have been despatched to retailers in New Jersey and Alabama; the names of the retailers have been redacted. It’s additionally unclear if Reynolds is threatening authorized motion in opposition to the businesses manufacturing these merchandise. Elf Bar, for instance, is owned primarily by Zhang Shengwei, a Chinese language businessman who has reportedly grow to be a billionaire due to his firm’s surging recognition.
It doesn’t seem that Reynolds has truly sued any vape retailers promoting flavored merchandise. However the firm, if it selected to sue, would possible accomplish that beneath a state’s unfair competitors regulation. In each letters, the attorneys argue that promoting flavored tobacco merchandise violates these legal guidelines as a result of the sale of unauthorized merchandise “has harmed and continues to hurt” Reynolds’ vapor enterprise.
The letters don’t specify how Reynolds has been harmed. When requested in regards to the declare, a spokesperson mentioned “retailers that break the regulation threaten to undermine the potential of tobacco hurt discount to maneuver grownup people who smoke who’ve chosen to not give up to contemplate probably less-risky options by stocking cabinets with unregulated, unlawful merchandise from unknown sources.”
It’s additionally possible that the corporate, have been it to sue, would argue that being compelled to compete with unlawful merchandise cuts into its authorized enterprise.
It’s true that disposable flavored vapes, like Elf Bar, have gotten an more and more massive a part of the vaping market. However Reynolds’ declare that it’s being harmed seems to contradict current remarks by the CEO of RJ Reynolds’ guardian firm, British American Tobacco, who has advised traders that the expansion of disposables in the US has not impacted the corporate’s enterprise negatively.
“What’s very attention-grabbing to see is that the vapor — conventional vapor pods has continued to develop. It didn’t substitute each other,” he mentioned on a February 2023 earnings name, the place the corporate touted that Vuse is the fastest-growing nicotine product in the US. “I imply, the numbers communicate for themselves.”
STAT’s protection of the industrial determinants of well being is supported by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Our monetary supporters aren’t concerned in any selections about our journalism.