New York City filed a federal lawsuit against Price Point Distributors Inc., a major distributor of disposable flavored e-cigarettes, on Thursday. The Farmingdale, Long Island-based company stands accused of distributing e-cigarettes with flavors such as snow cone, strawberry shortcake, and Hawaii Punch to retail stores and directly to consumers in New York City and across the country through online sales, violating nearly every applicable federal, New York state, and New York City law governing the sale of such products.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Acting Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant announced the lawsuit, emphasizing that flavored vapes are the most popular devices for nicotine use among middle and high school youth. Mayor Adams stated, “Protecting young New Yorkers means stubbing out illegal vape and e-cigarette sales that target them. Today’s lawsuit alleges that Price Point Distributors knew it was breaking laws by selling flavored cigarettes to New Yorkers, and even took measures to conceal these illegal sales from federal, state and local authorities.”
The lawsuit seeks to block Price Point Distributors Inc. from further sales of illegal vapes and seeks both monetary damages and fines from the company. This action is the latest effort by the Adams administration to curb illegal sales of flavored e-cigarettes, which are appealing and addictive, especially to teens.
New York City also filed a federal lawsuit against four major distributors of flavored disposable e-cigarettes in July 2023 and a second lawsuit against 11 local wholesalers in April, which has now been transferred to federal court. Both cases are proceeding, according to the mayor’s office.
The most recent data from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) shows that e-cigarette use among U.S. youth dropped to its lowest level in a decade. However, the report also revealed that 87.6% of youth prefer flavored e-cigarettes.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned flavored vape cartridges in 2020, and flavored e-cigarettes can only be legally sold if they receive authorization from the FDA through the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) process. To date, only Njoy LLC’s four menthol-flavored e-cigarette products have been authorized by the FDA as non-tobacco flavored e-cigarette products.
In addition to violating federal and state laws, Price Point Distributors Inc. is accused of violating the New York City Administrative Code and the city’s public nuisance laws. The FDA had previously warned the company in August 2020 for selling misbranded products without marketing authorization from the agency.
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