Online E-Cigarette Retailers Fail to Comply with Sale Regulations

In addition to violations of flavor restrictions, the online purchases violated the Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act, a federal law prohibiting the use of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to ship vaping products and requires both age verification and scanning identifications upon delivery.

“There are longstanding surveillance systems in place that help implement laws at brick-and-mortar stores, but we do not have a system in place for online retailers,” said Eric Leas, Ph.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. “The results of this study highlight the need for greater oversight and enforcement of online tobacco retailers.”

Key findings include:

• 1% of buyers had their IDs scanned
• 81% of deliveries were made via the USPS
• 9% arrived via couriers with policies restricting shipping tobacco, including: 4.0% via UPS, 3.0% via FedEx 3.0% and 1.8% via DHL
• 78% of buyers reported no interaction with delivery personnel
• 15% of buyers spoke with delivery personnel but did not have their IDs checked
• 6% of buyers had their IDs checked but not scanned

“Online sales of e-cigarettes are the largest and fastest growing sector of the tobacco. We need to evaluate tobacco retail policies and ensure they cover e-commerce and monitor the market to improve implementation,” said Leas, who is also director of the Tobacco E-commerce Lab.

In a 2023 study published in Tobacco Control, Leas reported that following the implementation of SB-793, online shopping queries were 194% higher than expected for cigarettes and 162% higher than expected for vape products.

As a result, to strengthen state tobacco oversight programs, including online sales of flavored tobacco products, California lawmakers recently approved SB-1230, citing Leas’ Tobacco Control study. The law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

“This research is piloting a system for monitoring online compliance that local health departments could mimic as a routine surveillance system to strengthen the implementation of public health laws designed to reduce the sale of tobacco products to minors,” said Leas.

Co-authors on the JAMA study include: Raquel M. Harati, Shannon E. Ellis, Nora Satybaldiyeva, and Tomas Mejorado, all of UC San Diego; Gustavo Benitez, California State University San Marcos; and Lisa Henriksen, Stanford University.

This research was funded, in part, by the California Tobacco Related Disease Research Program (T32IP4684).