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What is Banned Now?

On January 1st, 2020, the FDA announced a ban on all e-cigarette pod flavors except tobacco and menthol. Thankfully, this ban does not include bottled e-liquid and/or hardware like mods and coils.

This means Zamplebox will be able to continue to provide delicious-tasting e-liquid to adults at great prices!

Zamplebox and the rest of the vape industry have been waiting for guidance since President Trump announced his plan to ban flavored e-cigarettes on September 11, 2019. Immediately following this announcement, vapers and small businesses started a grassroots campaign on social media using #wevapewevote. It was obvious that a complete ban on flavored products could threaten the President's chances of re-election. Fortunately, the President took notice and decided against moving forward with a full ban, citing concerns for job loss as a key reason for this decision. Following this reversal, the Trump administration went further and invited both sides of the vape debate to a discussion at the White House. This meeting was fantastic to watch, and we highly recommend you check out what went down!

Poor Big Tobacco...

These newest regulations will primarily affect Big Tobacco-owned vapor businesses such as Altria (Juul), Imperial Tobacco (Blu), and RJ Reynolds (Vuse), companies who dominate sales in convenience stores and gas stations. Their products are predominantly pre-filled pod/cartridge-based products that are available in three to five flavor options including tobacco and menthol. It is also important to note that Juul, the leader of this market, removed all flavored pods other than tobacco and menthol last year.

Because this ban primarily affects pre-filled pod products, Zamplebox, vape shops, and e-liquid manufacturers from across the country will be able to continue operations.  This newest ruling will allow hundreds of small vape shops and e-liquid manufacturers to keep their jobs and businesses. Overall, this is fantastic news for the industry, but our future may still be uncertain. All manufacturers of vape products will still be required to submit Pre Market Tobacco Applications (PMTA) by May 11th, or they must remove their products from the market.

How much is it?

To make matters worse, the current FDA guidance does nothing to address the many problems with the current PMTA framework and only allows the industry to survive for a few more months. Currently, the FDA estimates the costs of these applications between $117,000 to $466,000, per product/SKU. This means if an e-liquid manufacturer has ten flavors in four nicotine strengths and two bottles sizes, the cost would range between $9.4 to $37.2 Million. The only manufacturers that may be able to afford this are the largest companies with backing from Big Tobacco.

So has this ruling just postponed this industry’s imminent demise?

All we know is that we have a big fight ahead of us!

Stay tuned for more vape news like this. 

Our next video will be covering all the ins and outs of the looming PMTA's!

Check out our most recent video on how to spot dangerous vapes right here.