Category: Disposables

  • Altria: Illicit Disposable Vapes Impacting NJOY Sales

    Altria: Illicit Disposable Vapes Impacting NJOY Sales

    Credit: Apichat

    Altria says a booming illegal disposable flavored vape market is causing a major decline in the sales of its authorized vaping products.

    Sal Mancuso, Altria’s CFO, pointed out on a call with select media and financial analysts that traditional cigarette industry volumes had dropped even more than usual in the third quarter. The decline was caused by inflation and economic issues influencing customers, as well as the heightened usage of illegal flavored disposable e-cigarettes.

    Mancuso further stated that there appeared to be more switching between different categories than initially assumed and that e-cigarettes alone were causing a 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent reduction in traditional cigarette industry volumes.

    BAT subsidiary R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. holds the top market share in the U.S. at 41.8 percent as of the latest Nielsen convenience store report released Oct. 7.

    NJOY, which Altria purchased for $2.75 billion in June, has struggled to increase its No. 3 market share.

    “The current state of the (vaping) market is intolerable for both legitimate manufacturers and consumers,” Billy Gifford, Altria’s CEO, said during the call. “As we have noted repeatedly for months, the regulated market is being overrun by illegal-flavored disposable e-vapor products made and distributed by companies violating virtually every rule and guidance FDA has issued since 2016.

    “A lot of these products are imported. They’re imported illegally and then they’re sold illegally.”

    Saying a “strong course correction is needed,” Gifford noted that Altria has filed federal lawsuits in California against 34 organizations that include manufacturers, distributors and online retailers.

  • Altria’s NJOY Sues 34 Disposable Vape Companies

    Altria’s NJOY Sues 34 Disposable Vape Companies

    Credit: Kristina Blokhin

    Altria Group today said that its e-cigarette subsidiary NJOY, LLC has filed lawsuits against 34 foreign and domestic manufacturers, distributors and online retailers of illicit disposable vaping products. If successful, the lawsuit could potentially decimate the flavored disposable vaping market.

    Altria joins its largest U.S. competitor, BAT-owned RJ Reynolds, in using the courts to remove unauthorized vaping products (and their competition) from the U.S. market.

    On Oct.13, Reynolds filed a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) complaint charging multiple manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of several popular disposable vaping devices with unfair importation. It is one of several recent actions Reynolds has made to remove its competitor’s vaping products from store shelves. Several legal scholars have told Vapor Voice that if the ITC agrees with Reynolds, all flavored disposable vaping devices without an FDA marketing authorization could be stopped at the border and prevented from entering the U.S. market.

    The NJOY suit alleges that the disposable products are unlawfully marketed and sold in the State of California and other U.S. states in violation of California’s flavor ban law and federal marketing rules.

    The products are illegal under federal law and subject to action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and illegally compete against companies that comply with state and federal laws, according to an Altria press release.

    The suit seeks a nationwide injunction against the import, marketing and sale of these illicit products and significant compensatory and punitive damages. If successful the lawsuit could lead to the removal of all disposable flavored vaping products without an FDA marketing order from the market.

    “These companies knowingly violate federal and state laws and need to be held accountable,” said Murray Garnick, Altria’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. “Today there are two markets – one for those who play by the rules and one for those who flagrantly ignore them. We are taking this action because the current state of the illicit e-vapor market is intolerable, and we must see more action from FDA and others.”

    The litigation, filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, is brought under four claims: unfair competition, false advertising, false advertising in violation of the Lanham Act and violation of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009.

    Named Defendants in the suit manufacture and distribute illicit disposable e-vapor products which include, but are not limited to, brands including Breeze, Elf Bar, EB, EB Create, Esco Bar, Flum, Juice Box, Lava Plus, Loon, Lost Mary, Mr. Fog and Puff Bar (many of these companies were also named in the Reynolds suit). Domestic Defendants include companies doing business in Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Foreign Defendants are all based in China.

    None of the Defendants has received premarket tobacco product authorization (PMTA) approval from the FDA. In many instances, Defendants also have not filed PMTA applications. Several of these Defendants have already received warning letters from the FDA stating that their products are adulterated and misbranded and cannot be sold without marketing authorization.

    Additionally, some of these Defendants are subject to an FDA-ordered import alert authorizing U.S. Customs and Border agents to seize their products. NJOY may add additional manufacturers, distributors and retailers to this complaint and will consider further litigation activity, the release states.

    Despite a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products that went into effect in December 2022, flavored vapor products make up more than 97 percent of the California market according to a recent study commissioned by Altria. Conducted by an independent research firm WSPM Group, “the study collected 15,000 empty discarded cigarette packs and 4,529 e-vapor product packages” from May 1st through June 28th in 10 California cities.

  • Reynolds ITC Complaint Could Destroy Vape Industry

    Reynolds ITC Complaint Could Destroy Vape Industry

    The implications could be far-reaching. R.J. Reynolds has filed a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) complaint charging multiple manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of several popular disposable vaping devices with unfair importation. It is one of several recent actions Reynolds has made to remove its competitor’s vaping products from store shelves.

    Reynolds is asking the ITC to investigate and issue an exclusion order preventing further U.S. imports of disposable vaping products. Several legal scholars have told Vapor Voice that if the ITC agrees with Reynolds, all flavored disposable vaping devices without a U.S. Food and Drug Administration marketing authorization could be stopped at the border and prevented from entering the U.S. market.

    Reynolds wants the ITC to issue a permanent “cease and desist order” prohibiting any businesses from selling illegal vaping products. The move would push nearly the entire vaping industry underground, with the exception of products owned by major tobacco companies such as Reynolds that have received marketing orders from the FDA.

    Several businesses were named specifically as “peddlers of illegal disposable vapes” in the Reynolds complaint, including the manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers of Breeze, Elf Bar, Esco Bar, Hyde, Puff Bar, and R&M disposable vapes.

    Also named are several well-known U.S. wholesale and retailers of disposable vapes, including Element Vape, Flawless Vape, Magellan Technology, Mi-One Brands, Price Point Distributors, and Vape Sourcing.

    The ITC complaint accuses what amounts to the manufacturers of all unauthorized vaping products of importing “illegal disposable vapes” in violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Specifically, Reynolds claims the named businesses either falsely advertised that their products are authorized for sale by the U.S. government, failed to comply with federal laws imposing registration and reporting requirements and limitations on sales, or violated customs laws and regulations.

    Reynolds owns the Vuse vaping brand, including the Vuse Alto. Last week, the FDA issued a marketing denial order (MDO), ordering Alto menthol refill pods off the market. The Alto device and tobacco-flavored pods are still under review by the agency. Two older Vuse vapes, the Solo and Vibe models (and their tobacco-flavored refills) are among the 23 products currently authorized by the FDA.

    Reynolds also states it has the capacity to fill any void in the market if the illegal products were removed. “Reynolds has the capacity to replace any increase in demand if the Accused Products were excluded from importation,” the complaint states. “Reynolds is willing to meet any increased demand and can do so in a commercially reasonable time, given that it already supplies the industry with significant quantities of ENDS products, as well as oral tobacco and nicotine products.”

    The ITC has not yet made a decision on the complaint that was filed on Oct. 13.

  • Elf Bar Changes its Name to Sidestep Import Ban

    Elf Bar Changes its Name to Sidestep Import Ban

    Elf Bar continues to defy a U.S. import ban thanks to a simple but effective tactic: changing its name.

    Imiracle, the China-based manufacturer of Elf Bar, Lost Mary and EB Design vaping products, had its products added to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration import red list four months ago.

    The company is now importing its disposable vaping devices under a different name, EBCreate, EBDesign and brands such as Airo Max. The rebranded products also list different Chinese manufacturers than those targeted by the FDA, such as iMiracle.

    Convenience stores in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York and other cities remain fully stocked with the brightly colored vapes, sold in fruity flavors like strawberry melon and claiming to contain 5,000 “puffs” per device, according to the AP.

    The makeover underscores the FDA’s inability to stanch the flow of unauthorized e-cigarettes into the U.S., mainly through large shipping hubs like Los Angeles and Houston.

    “E-cigarette manufacturers have proven themselves to not operate in good faith,” said Desmond Jenson, an attorney at the Public Health Law Center. “Until there’s something global that’s a deterrent to selling illegal products this is going to be the status quo.”

    Elf Bar generated U.S. sales of over $271 million in the past year, according to retail data tracker Nielsen. Separate data previously obtained by the AP shows the brand hit U.S. stores in November 2021, racking up hundreds of millions in sales over 18 months before being targeted by FDA regulators.

    Two weeks after the FDA notified Elf Bar of the import ban, a request to trademark EBCreate was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The filing was made by the same patent attorney who submitted Elf Bar’s previous applications. But unlike those filings, the paperwork doesn’t mention Elf Bar’s parent company, iMiracle Shenzhen Technology. Instead the application lists a Hong Kong company, Nevera HK Limited, the same company listed on new EBCreate e-cigarette packages.

  • Disposables Claim Nearly 40% of Global Vape Market

    Disposables Claim Nearly 40% of Global Vape Market

    Photo: Alexander Gavrilichev

    Disposable e-cigarettes account for almost 40 percent of the vape sector, according to new analysis from ECigIntelligence.

    After an initial boom in the United States, the disposables market is now growing at a faster pace in other countries.

    Consumers are attracted to disposables mainly by convenience and low price, but there are variations in products internationally.

    For example, due to the EU Tobacco Product Directive’s (TPD) restrictions on the amount of e-liquid in vape products, the size of disposables has increased much more in non-TPD countries.

    On the other hand, in some TPD markets there has been an increase in zero-nicotine products, as these are allowed to have a larger tank capacity.

    Another notable recent development is the emergence of products that address the environmental concerns associated with disposables, for example products made mostly of paper, or with biodegradable components.

    To provide further insight into the global disposables market, ECigIntelligence has now launched a disposable e-cigarettes tracker.

    The data shows how disposable vape pricing, technical features, flavors and nicotine strengths have developed since 2020 across brands carried by leading online retailers. Users can even select specific models and see their closest competitors in the market in terms of features such as number of puffs, e-liquid capacity, battery capacity, and physical shape.

    “The disposables market has ballooned at such a rate that there is an urgent need for reliable, in-depth data,” said Tim Phillips, managing director of Tamarind Intelligence, which produces ECigIntelligence. “This new tracker will provide the intelligence that players at every level in the industry have been crying out for as they formulate their strategy on disposable products.”

  • Australia: Activists Want Return Deposits on Vapes

    Australia: Activists Want Return Deposits on Vapes

    Credit: Va Butenkov

    Environmental activists in Australia are calling for a national strategy to force manufacturers, importers and retailers of vaping products to take responsibility for the industry’s waste, especially the disposal of lithium-ion batteries.

    Clean Up Australia says consumers are confused about how to responsibly dispose of their used products, which are variously classified as electronic waste or hazardous waste depending on where someone lives in Australia.

    The lithium-ion batteries embedded in vaping products, especially disposables, have been blamed for an increasing number of hazardous fires at landfill sites across the island nation.

    Pip Kiernan, the head of Clean Up Australia, said consumers should not be left to navigate the complexities of how local councils classify vaping waste, according to media reports.

    “It’s a mess and it’s no wonder they are ending up as litter. There is an urgent need for national consistency,” she said. “It shouldn’t be this hard.”

    Kiernan wants a mandatory solution that forces responsibility onto the vaping industry and favors something like the deposit on aluminum and glass containers in place around the country.

    “The consumer pays 10 cents when they buy a drink, and they get it back when they return the beverage container,” said Kiernan. “So there’s a cash incentive for consumers to do it, and it’s very clear how to do it.”

  • Dunkin Suing Vape Company for Trademark Violation

    Dunkin Suing Vape Company for Trademark Violation

    Credit: Alan

    Doughnut chain Dunkin’ sued an e-cigarette maker in New York federal court on Friday, claiming its “Vapin’ Donuts” products violate the chain’s trademark rights.

    The lawsuit said Singh Handicraft Corp uses branding that is “nearly identical” to Dunkin’s on disposable vaporizers shaped like an iced coffee cup and a glazed doughnut, with a logo in the same “distinctive orange and pink color scheme and rounded font,” Reuters reports.

    Massachusetts-based Dunkin’ also said that Singh sells the vaporizers in identical flavors to some of the chain’s drinks, including White Mocha and Iced Cappuccino. It accused Farmingdale, New York-based Singh of intentionally associating its products with Dunkin’ in a way that is likely to cause consumer confusion.

    Representatives for Dunkin’ and Singh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

    The complaint said that Singh’s products are sold through several online and brick-and-mortar vaping outlets. It said buyers of the e-cigarettes have “expressed that the only reason they purchased Defendants’ products is out of an affection for Dunkin’,” citing internet comments.

    Dunkin’ also accused Singh of targeting underaged buyers and said that such “morally reprehensible and illegal conduct” hurts the chain’s reputation.

    Dunkin’ asked the court for an order to stop Singh’s alleged trademark infringement and an unspecified amount of money damages.

    Singh applied for a federal trademark covering “Vapin’ Donuts” in March. Its application is still pending.

  • Kaival Brands Earns Initial Royalties From Philip Morris

    Kaival Brands Earns Initial Royalties From Philip Morris

    Kaival Brands Innovations Group, Inc, parent to Bidi Vapor, LLC (“Bidi Vapor”), received its first royalty payments from Philip Morris International, Inc. (PMI) for marketing Bidi Vapor products in multiple countries.

    In a press release, Kaival Brands announced that PMI achieved a record level of monthly sales in July for of its Bidi products that are marketed by PMI under the names VEEBA and VEEV NOW.

    Eric Mosser, Chief Executive Officer and President of Kaival Brands, said he was pleased to see the positive trajectory of sales and royalties to the company.

    “We are proud to work with Philip Morris and remain steadfast in our commitment to the responsible commercialization of better alternatives to cigarettes for adults who would otherwise continue smoking,” he said.

  • FDA Sends More Warning Letters for Illegal Vapes

    FDA Sends More Warning Letters for Illegal Vapes

    On Sept. 14, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to 15 online retailers and three manufacturers and/or distributors for selling or distributing unauthorized e-cigarette products. Additionally, in one case, the retailer illegally sold a product to an underage purchaser. The warning letters cite a range of popular and youth-appealing e-cigarette products, including disposable products, marketed under the brand names Elf Bar, EB Design, Lava, Cali, Bang and Kangertech. 

    According to the FDA, the youth-appealing e-cigarette products of focus were identified through rapid surveillance and a data-driven approach to investigations. Retail sales data, emerging internal data from surveys of youth, as well as other data sources helped the agency to identify the rising popularity of these youth-appealing products, which were subsequently prioritized for investigation across the supply chain, from manufacturers to distributors to retailers.

    “Given the rapidly evolving nature of the e-cigarette landscape, it’s essential that we have nimble surveillance tools that can best keep pace to protect public health,” said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “They’re a critical component of our comprehensive surveillance toolbox, so that we can proactively identify and swiftly stave off emerging threats, particularly those affecting our nation’s youth.”

  • Wales: Lawmakers Call for Ban on Single-Use Vapes

    Wales: Lawmakers Call for Ban on Single-Use Vapes

    wales
    Credit: Jeffery

    The Welsh government is calling for a ban on disposable single-use vapes, according to media reports. The move would be “part of a suite of measures to address youth vaping”, Welsh ministers said.

    The Welsh government does not have the power to prohibit the vapes, but is calling on the UK government to do so. The UK Vaping Industry Association said banning disposable vapes was “not the answer” and instead called for action against retailers who sold the products to under-18s.

    Calls for a ban have been supported by the wildlife charity RSPCA Cymru, which says discarded vapes contain materials and poisonous substances including plastic, lithium and nicotine, which are all hazardous to animals.

    Wales joins lawmakers in Scotland and England in calling for a ban on disposable vaping products.

    The UK Vaping Industry Association’s director general, John Dunne, said banning the products could lead to black markets and increased smoking rates, leaving more people at risk.

    “We’ve always acknowledged that the issues of youth vaping and environmental impact of vapes need to be tackled,” he said. “However, it is clear that significantly increased enforcement is required against retailers who sell to minors.”