NEWS
• showing a customer how to install a
battery
• demonstrating how a device is put
together
• filling a tank with e-liquid
• building or replacing a coil
• swapping tanks
It seems that this general assistance,
the sort of thing that friendly, customerfocused vape store owners and staff
do every day, would be regarded as
‘manufacturing’ because the final product
is being assembled.
Quite how that rule protects the public
is difficult to understand but it actually
gets worse…it is now illegal, under some
circumstances, to make certain truthful
statements about vaping in order to help
your customers make informed choices
about whether or not to vape.
Specifically, since August 8, the label,
labeling or advertising of vapor products
may not “explicitly or implicitly” inform
customers of the following facts:
• that the primary purpose of electronic
cigarettes is to provide a safer alterna
tive to smoking
• that electronic cigarettes do not
contain any tobacco, and are there
fore a tobacco product only in a legal/
regulatory sense
• that electronic cigarettes contain
much lower levels of tobacco-specific
nitrosamines and many other carcino
gens than tobacco cigarettes and
• that electronic cigarette use is much
safer than smoking.
So if you truthfully labeled or advertised
an e-liquid with the words: “Contains no
tobacco” you would be doing two things making a statement of fact and breaking
the law.
Mario Weaks who works at vape store
The Vapor Spot in Sacramento, CA, told
KCRA TV: “These new rules cut us off
at the throat. The FDA doesn’t allow us
to give any proper advice to customers
on how to use vaporisers or how to work
them properly.”
And if you want to let a customer try a
juice to determine whether they like it
before buying, then forget it because
giving away free samples is now
also illegal.
Andrew Osborne, the owner of Vapor
Trail Electronics in Buffalo, New York
state, told WIBV TV that the new 499
pages of federal regulations could cost
small businesses hundreds of millions of
dollars and could lead to the collapse of
the industry within two years.
He fears that the regulations could result
in the big tobacco firms taking over the
vaping industry as they would be the only
ones who had the money to pay the fees
needed to comply with the regulations.
Osborne’s concerns were echoed by
Ohio-based vape store owner Chris
Voudris from Vapor Haus. Voudris told
the Dayton Daily News that the FDA
rules seemed tailored to wipe out the
vape industry. He said: “This is going
to wipe out the e-cigarette business and
leave Big Tobacco running the industry.”
The next major deadline is December
31, 2016 which is the cut off date for
manufacturers (including importers)
to register their manufacturing
establishment(s) and individual products
with the FDA in order for them to be sold
after this date.
“It seems that this general assistance,
the sort of thing that friendly,
customer-focused vape store owners
and staff do every day would e
regarded as manu acturing’ ecause
the nal product is eing assem led.”
VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE USA 19