New York City on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against a major distributor of disposable flavored e-cigarettes, which are illegal to sell in the city. Price Point Distributors Inc., based out of Farmingdale on Long Island, is 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, the lawsuit claims.
This violates nearly every applicable federal, New York state and New York City law governing the sale of such products, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (pictured above at a press conference Thursday) and New York City Acting Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant said in the announcement of the lawsuit. The two said flavored vapes are the most popular devices for nicotine use among middle and high school youth.
“Part of protecting public safety means protecting the health of New Yorkers, including our most vulnerable—our children, who are more susceptible to nicotine addiction, especially when products are flavored to make the taste less harsh,” Adams said. “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. This lawsuit, as well as our continued efforts to shut down illegal smoke shops, goes hand-in-hand with the work our administration is doing to bring down overall crime in our city.”
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 is the latest effort by the Adams administration to curb illegal sales of flavored e-cigarettes, which are appealing and addictive, especially to teens, the mayor said.
New York City also filed a federal lawsuit against four major distributors of flavored disposable e-cigarettes in July 2023. In April, the city filed a second lawsuit against 11 local wholesalers, which has now been transferred to federal court. Both cases are proceeding, the mayor’s office said.
E-cigarette use among U.S. youth dropped to its lowest level in a decade, according to the most recent data from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). The report also said that 87.6% of youth said they prefer flavored e-cigarettes.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned flavored vape cartridges in 2020. Flavored e-cigarettes can only be legally sold if they receive authorization from the FDA by going through the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) process. So far, Njoy LLC’s four menthol-flavored e-cigarette products are the only non-tobacco flavored e-cigarette products to be authorized by the FDA.
Price Point Distributors Inc. is also accused of violating the New York Public Health Law, the New York City Administrative Code and the city’s public nuisance laws, the mayor’s office said. The FDA has also previously warned Price Point Distributors Inc. in August 2020 for selling misbranded products without marketing authorization from the agency.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.