Note
Update Dec. 27, 2020
After several tense days, President Trump has signed the omnibus spending bill that funds the government, and also includes the language that will ban U.S. Mail shipments of vaping products, and force online vape sellers into compliance with the requirements of the PACT Act (the bill also included the coronavirus economic relief package).
As described in the article below, the U.S. Postal Service now has 120 days to implement regulations that prohibit mailing vaping products. The PACT Act provisions become law in 90 days.
When Trump announced on Dec. 23 that he might veto the omnibus package, vaping advocates organized to contact the White House, asking the President to request that Congress eliminate the vaping-related language from the bill. The existing CASAA call to action was modified to send an email to Trump.
However, all efforts were for naught, as the President reversed position and signed the bill. His only demand that will likely see action in Congress was to increase the individual coronavirus relief payouts from $600 to $2,000 (which Democrats had already supported).
Dec. 21, 2020
Along with welcome coronavirus economic relief, the 2021 omnibus spending bill that Congress must pass today contains an unwelcome holiday gift for vapers: serious restrictions on vape product shipping that will change the retail vape market for the worse.
The “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act” was described by many (including me) as the “vape mail ban.” The law does in fact require the U.S. Postal Service to create its own regulations within 120 days banning U.S. Mail delivery of vaping products—whether they contain nicotine or not. (You can read the exact wording of the bill here on page 5136.)
But the “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act” does much more than ending vape mail. The new law will force shippers of nicotine and cannabis vaping products to comply with the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, which imposes stringent rules on online sellers. (The PACT Act is part of the larger federal Jenkins Act.)
Online retailers will be required to:
Sellers who do not register or don’t comply with the shipping and reporting rules of the PACT Act are subject to severe penalties, including up to three years in prison.
“If the increase in shipping costs wasn’t enough, the bill also imposes huge paperwork burdens on small retailers, and backs it up with threats of imprisonment for even innocent mistakes,” American Vaping Association President Gregory Conley said in a statement. “This is not a law designed to regulate the mail-order sale of vaping products to adults; it’s an attempt to eliminate it.”
The product definitions in the law appear to include e-liquid and devices that contain no nicotine, contain only CBD, or are designed to be used solely with THC oil. “The term ‘electronic nicotine delivery system’...means any electronic device that, through an aerosolized solution, delivers nicotine, flavor, or any other substance to the user,” it says.
The PACT Act provisions of the new law will take effect in 90 days. Online vape retailers and manufacturers who ship directly to customers will be studying the law with their lawyers in the coming weeks to determine if they’re able to meet the exacting requirements of shipping products that fall under the PACT Act.
With the USPS off limits for online sellers, private delivery services will immediately be pressured by anti-tobacco (and -vaping) groups to prohibit shipping of vaping products. One service—Fedex—has already announced that it will end all shipping of vaping products early next year.
“As of March 1, 2021, FedEx will begin prohibiting electronic cigarettes, vaping liquids, and other vaping products in the FedEx global network,” a spokesperson for the company told Vaping360 last Friday.
You can read our previous coverage of the “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act” here:
Jim McDonald
Vaping for: 13 years
Favorite products:
Favorite flavors: RY4-style tobaccos, fruits
Expertise in: Political and legal challenges, tobacco control haters, moral panics
Jim McDonald
Smokers created vaping for themselves without help from the tobacco industry or anti-tobacco crusaders, and I believe vapers and the vaping industry have the right to continue innovating to give everyone who wants to use nicotine access to safe and attractive non-combustible options. My goal is to provide clear, honest information about vaping and the challenges nicotine consumers face from lawmakers, regulators, and brokers of disinformation. You can find me on Twitter @whycherrywhy
