The Food and Drug Administration warned three online retailers for selling or distributing unauthorized e-cigarettes packaged to look like bottles of alcohol.
The retailers sold Luckee Vape Daniels brands, which are flavored, disposable e-cigarette products that come in various common alcoholic drink flavors that may appeal to young people, including icy pina colada, frozen strawberry daiquiri, and watermelon martini, the FDA said, which sent its latest round of warning letters on Dec. 20.
“FDA is committed to taking action across the supply chain, including among retailers, to remove unauthorized tobacco products from the marketplace,”said Brian King, director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “This includes continued monitoring of the online marketplace to identify and combat against emerging products of concern.”
Retailers received a warning letter from the FDA citing they lack authorization from the agency to sell or distribute their e-cigarettes in the United States, the FDA said. Additionally, the FDA said failure to do so might result in injunctions, seizure or civil money penalties.
E-cigarettes remain the most used tobacco product among both high school and middle school students and about one in 14 (7.2%) reporting use of products with alcoholic drink flavors, the FDA said, citing data from the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey.
As of December, the FDA has issued over 650 warning letters to firms for manufacturing or distributing e-cigarette products that lacked marketing authorization from the FDA. The FDA has also issued more than 400 warning letters to retailers for the sale of unauthorized e-cigarettes and filed civil money penalty complaints against 39 e-cigarette manufacturers and 67 retailers. It has also filed seven complaints for permanent injunctions against firms marketing unauthorized e-cigarettes.
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