Tag: Vermont

  • Vermont to Receive $165,000 for Illegal Online Sales

    Vermont to Receive $165,000 for Illegal Online Sales

    The state of Vermont has reached settlements with three different online sellers of electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) for violations of Vermont’s Delivery Sales Ban and Consumer Protection Act. Attorney General T.J. Donovan announced that under the settlements the companies resolved claims that they sold vaping products, e-liquids, or other tobacco paraphernalia to individual consumers.

    Credit: Belyay

    As of July 1, 2019, it is illegal to sell electronic cigarettes and related vaping products over the internet to individual Vermont consumers. In total, Pure Laboratories, The Boiler Electronic Cigarette Company and VapinUSA-Wi together will pay $165,000 in civil penalties to the State of Vermont, according to vermontbiz.com. The three settlements come on the heels of announcements in December 2020 and May 2021 that the Attorney General’s Office reached settlements with 10 other online sellers of electronic cigarettes, totaling $307,500 in civil penalties.

    “Online sales of vaping products are illegal,” said Donovan. “I am pleased that these websites will no longer be shipping products to Vermont.”

    Since 2008, Vermont’s Delivery Sales Ban law has prohibited cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, little cigars, and snuff, ordered or purchased by telephone, mail order, or through the internet, to be shipped to anyone in Vermont other than a licensed wholesaler dealer or retailer. This law was expanded in 2019 to include tobacco substitutes (including electronic cigarettes), substances containing nicotine or otherwise intended for use with a tobacco substitute, and tobacco paraphernalia. The Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery conducts compliance checks of online retailers to determine compliance with this law.

    Under the terms of the settlement agreements, in addition to paying civil penalties, the companies are required to notify Vermont consumers that they do not ship to individual consumers in Vermont.

  • Vermont Revives Bill to Ban Flavored Vape Products

    Vermont Revives Bill to Ban Flavored Vape Products

    The U.S. state of Vermont is once again floating the idea of proposing legislation that seeks to ban the sale of flavored vaping products. Support for the bill is gaining traction in the state’s senate and would also ban flavored combustible tobacco, including menthol cigarettes.Flavored nicotine products

    The ban was originally proposed in early 2020 as a way to prevent youth use, but was sidelined after the Covid-19 pandemic began to impact the country. Ginny Lyons, chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, said in an interview this week that she’d like the Senate to pass the bill, S.24, “as quickly as possible.” She said use of nicotine products by young people has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to vtdigger.com

    If Vermont approved a ban on flavored e-cigarettes, it would be the third state to do so. Massachusetts banned flavored vapes and tobacco products in 2019, and California followed suit last year. However, California’s law was blocked after the tobacco industry moved successfully to have voters decide on the ban in a statewide referendum next year.

    “During the pandemic, we’ve seen a real fallback from all the progress we’ve made on limiting youth access to tobacco and other flavored products, so it seems more important than ever to move forward with this bill,” Lyons said. “If we were only to eliminate all the other flavors and leave menthol on the market, we would see a transition of people to those menthol products, and we would be backsliding again.”