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Tag: Midwest Goods

  • Vape Co. Seeks Stay in $1.6M Battery Blast Verdict

    Vape Co. Seeks Stay in $1.6M Battery Blast Verdict

    Midwest Goods Inc. is asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to pause payment of a $1.6 million judgment awarded to the estate of Weldon Moore, who suffered severe burns when a lithium-ion battery exploded in his pocket in 2019. In court filings, the wholesaler argued that lower courts wrongly denied its requests for a new trial or judgment notwithstanding the verdict, claiming Moore failed to prove the company directly sold the defective battery. The company also contends liability and damages should have been tried separately and that its “sealed-container defense” should apply because the batteries were sold in prepackaged boxes.

    According to court records, Moore purchased the battery from Darth Vapor, operated by Richmen Enterprises LLC, which Moore’s estate argued obtained the product from Midwest. A jury sided with the estate, awarding $1.6 million, which has risen to more than $1.7 million with interest. The estate has asked the court to deny the stay request, arguing Midwest’s appeal bond leaves a shortfall of more than $221,000 and requests the company post additional security to cover the gap and anticipated interest while the appeal proceeds.

  • Midwest Goods Responds to FDA Seizure, Says Actions are ‘Troubling’

    Midwest Goods Responds to FDA Seizure, Says Actions are ‘Troubling’

    Following yesterday’s (September 10) news that federal officials seized $86.5 million worth of illicit vapes in Chicago, Midwest Goods confirmed that agents from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Marshals executed a civil seizure warrant at its facilities, targeting more than 75 brands of bottled e-liquids used in refillable vaping devices. The company said it is fully cooperating with authorities.

    In a statement, Midwest emphasized that the products cited in the warrant are manufactured in the U.S. by companies employing “hundreds, if not thousands,” of American workers. Many of the e-liquids, the company said, are tied to premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) that have been pending with the FDA since as far back as September 2020, despite a statutory requirement for review within 180 days. Midwest noted that the FDA has previously allowed these products to remain on the market during the prolonged review process.

    “Midwest has always attempted to work cooperatively with FDA,” the company said in its statement. “After a recent FDA inspection in August, we advised FDA that we had removed from our product catalog and inventory several ENDS products about which FDA inspectors had inquired. We also offered to remove other ENDS products from our product catalog if FDA was concerned about our continuing to offer them for sale. FDA acknowledged receipt of our correspondence, but did not request that we stop selling any other products.”

    The company called the enforcement action “troubling,” particularly in light of reports that FDA is preparing to expedite reviews of products tied to larger companies with more recent applications, while seizing long-pending independent products. It pledged to continue cooperating with federal authorities while reserving the right to challenge the seizure in court.

    Read the full statement here.

  • NY AG Files Lawsuit Against 12 Vape Companies

    NY AG Files Lawsuit Against 12 Vape Companies

    New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a lawsuit against 12 e-cigarette manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for “their role in fueling the youth vaping epidemic.” Those named in the lawsuit are Puff Bar, MYLE Vape, Pod Juice, Mi-One Brands, Happy Distro, Demand Vape, EVO Brands, PVG2, Magellan Technology, Midwest Goods, Safa Goods, and Price Point Distributors, as well as Price Point principals Weis Khwaja, Hamza Jalili, and Mohammad Jalili.

    “These companies are responsible for illegally distributing, marketing, and selling flavored disposable vapes, which have become extraordinarily popular among minors,” James said in a statement. “The vaping industry is taking a page out of Big Tobacco’s playbook: they’re making nicotine seem cool, getting kids hooked, and creating a massive public health crisis in the process.”

    In 2020, New York banned the sale of flavored vapor products, however, the products exploded in popularity globally in the past decade and are readily available at numerous outlets. The lawsuit seeks a “disgorgement of all revenues earned as a result of illegal activity” which would translate to hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as a permanent ban on flavored vapes in New York.

    “This punitive approach undermines American entrepreneurship and ignores the public health benefits of vaping as a smoking cessation tool,” Allison Boughner, the vice president of American Vapor Manufacturers, a trade group that represents vape makers and retailers, said in a statement. “This misguided action unfairly targets legitimate American businesses that employ thousands and contribute to local economies. Our members are dedicated to offering adult smokers safer alternatives to combustible cigarettes, supporting a mission of harm reduction backed by science and millions of successful former smokers.”

    Matthew Glauser, the chief strategy officer and a co-founder of Demand Vape, one of the companies named in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the suit was “wasting New York taxpayers’ money and federal court time, which desperately need to be focused on substantive issues that truly impact our communities.”

    According to the New York Times, Tony Abboud, the executive director of another industry group, Vapor Technology Association, disputed the suit’s claim that there was a youth vaping epidemic and called on President Trump “to take bold and decisive action to end the government lawfare against the flavored vaping industry.”