New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against 13 e-cigarette manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, including convenience stores, for their role in creating a "youth vaping epidemic." The legal action seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, including financial penalties for wide-ranging violations of local, state, and federal laws.
The companies named in the lawsuit include Puff Bar, MYLE Vape, Pod Juice, Mi-One Brands, Happy Distro, Demand Vape, EVO Brands, PVG2, Magellan Technology, Midwest Goods, Safa Goods, and Price Point Distributors, as well as Price Point principals Weis Khwaja, Hamza Jalili, and Mohammad Jalili. These companies are accused of illegally distributing, marketing, and selling flavored disposable vapes, such as Puff Bar, Elf Bar, Geek Bar, Breeze, and MYLE, which are popular among youth.
"The vaping industry is taking a page out of Big Tobacco's playbook: they're making nicotine seem cool, getting kids hooked, and creating a massive public health crisis in the process," said Attorney General James. "For too long, these companies have disregarded our laws in order to profit off of our young people, but we will not risk the health and safety of our kids. Today, we are taking critical steps toward holding these companies accountable for the harm they have caused New Yorkers."
An investigation by the attorney general's office found that these companies rely on social media and use eye-catching, cartoonish packaging and flavors like Blue Razz Slushy, Sour Watermelon Patch, and Unicorn Cake to attract young people. Puff Bar, for example, ran a social media advertisement during the early days of the pandemic lockdown that billed their vapes as "the perfect escape from back-to-back Zoom calls [and] parental texts."
The lawsuit alleges that the companies have knowingly and intentionally ignored FDA warning letters and regulations, as well as the federal Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, which prohibits online sales of vaping products to consumers and unlicensed retailers. Despite New York's ban on the sale of flavored vapor products in 2020, none of the companies named in the lawsuit have received FDA authorization for their products.
The attorney general's office is seeking to force the companies to return all profits earned through their illegal activity, inform consumers of the dangers of vaping, and create an abatement fund to address and mitigate the effects of the public health crisis they helped create.
According to the New York State Department of Health (DOH), e-cigarette use among high school students has "skyrocketed" over the past decade, with flavored vapes being the "most commonly" used tobacco and nicotine product among youth. However, data from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) suggests that e-cigarette use among U.S. youth dropped to its lowest level in a decade.
