Vaping Industry Threatened by Regulation | Vape Industry
Back in 2015, our writer Preston made his case with a story about lunch. His favorite spot was a small taqueria in Washington whose owner, Beth, knew his order by heart. He made a point of backing local businesses like hers, because small shops can’t match the marketing budgets of big chains and depend on customers willing to give them a chance.
His argument was that the vaping industry had been built by the same kind of people, and that federal regulation threatened them.
An industry of small businesses
As vaping grew, small businesses sprang up across the country, from e-liquid makers mixing in their garages to fast-growing craft brands. Apart from tobacco-company brands such as Vuse and blu, no single company dominated, so competition was wide open.
The regulation threat
The FDA was expected to finalize rules treating nicotine e-liquid as a tobacco product. Makers would then have to file applications detailing ingredients, potential health effects and how each product was made. For small companies, that meant a long, expensive process many feared they could not survive.
Tobacco giants such as Altria, Lorillard and Reynolds American had the resources to absorb those costs. Having lost ground to independent vaporizers, Preston argued, big tobacco had every reason to welcome the new rules.
Protect small business
Preston’s closing message was about people like Beth, who want to pursue a passion and earn an honest living. He agreed that consumers have a right to know what is in the products they use, but not at the cost of the small businesses that built the industry. He asked readers, whether they vaped or not, to share the cause.
Where things stand now
The FDA finalized its deeming rule in 2016, bringing e-cigarettes and vape juice under federal tobacco law, and applications for products already on the market were due in September 2020. Many products are still under FDA review, and the rules keep shifting. Our history of the deeming rule covers what happened, fda.gov has the current requirements, and you can browse the brands we carry in our brands index.
WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. For adults 21+ only.