Study: Online Retailers Fail to Comply With Rules

 Online e-cigarette retailers are not consistently adhering to laws aimed at preventing the sale of vaping products to minors, including regulations on age verification, shipping methods and flavor restrictions, report researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego.

In a study published online on Nov. 11, 2024, in JAMA, researchers asked 16 people to purchase flavored vape products online and have them delivered to their homes in the County of San Diego, then analyzed the results of these attempted purchases. Of 156 attempted transactions 73 percent were processed and 67 percent were delivered.

As of March 21, 2024, sale restrictions on flavored tobacco have been enacted in eight U.S. states and 392 cities or counties, but some of these do not cover e-commerce. For example, the 2022 California Senate Bill (SB) 793 prohibited the sale of flavored tobacco products but left e-commerce restrictions ambiguous.

Due to the ambiguity in California law, the researchers aimed to test differences in compliance with local tobacco e-commerce ordinances. Eight buyers were from the City of San Diego, where an ordinance restricts the sale of flavored tobacco products, including online sales. The other eight were from other County of San Diego communities, which do not have the same restrictions. Delivery did not differ significantly between buyers in these two jurisdictions.

In addition to violations of flavor restrictions, the online purchases violated the Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act, a federal law prohibiting the use of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to ship vaping products and requires both age verification and scanning identifications upon delivery.

“There are longstanding surveillance systems in place that help implement laws at brick-and-mortar stores, but we do not have a system in place for online retailers,” said Eric Leas, an assistant professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, in a statement. “The results of this study highlight the need for greater oversight and enforcement of online tobacco retailers.”

Key findings include:

• 1 percent of buyers had their IDs scanned
• 81 percent of deliveries were made via the USPS
• 9 percent arrived via couriers with policies restricting shipping tobacco, including 4 percent via UPS, 3 percent via FedEx 3.0 percent and 1.8 percent via DHL
• 78 percent of buyers reported no interaction with delivery personnel
• 15 percent of buyers spoke with delivery personnel but did not have their IDs checked
• 6 percent of buyers had their IDs checked but not scanned

“Online sales of e-cigarettes are the largest and fastest growing sector of the tobacco. We need to evaluate tobacco retail policies and ensure they cover e-commerce and monitor the market to improve implementation,” said Leas, who is also director of the Tobacco E-commerce Lab.

In a 2023 study published in Tobacco Control, Leas reported that following the implementation of SB-793, online shopping queries were 194 percent higher than expected for cigarettes and 162 percent higher than expected for vape products.

As a result, to strengthen state tobacco oversight programs, including online sales of flavored tobacco products, California lawmakers recently approved SB-1230, citing Leas’ Tobacco Control study. The law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

“This research is piloting a system for monitoring online compliance that local health departments could mimic as a routine surveillance system to strengthen the implementation of public health laws designed to reduce the sale of tobacco products to minors,” said Leas.