Vape Company To Pay $375,000 For Illegal Sales In Washington

OLYMPIA, WA — A California-based vape company has agreed to pay Washington $375,000 to settle a lawsuit over its online sales practices.

E-Juice Vapor Inc. was one of several companies caught up in a recent sweep helmed by the Attorney General's Office.

“E-Juice Vapor illegally put profits over the safety of children,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. “We will continue to work with parents to keep nicotine products out of the hands of youth.”

During the sweep, investigators with the Attorney General's Office (AGO) tried to buy vape products from 148 online sellers. The investigators posed as minors, in some cases telling sellers they were underage, or used fake IDs to try and buy vapes or other products containing nicotine.

Of those 148 companies investigators contacted, all but seven passed the test and refused to sell to minors or without legal age verification. Six of those companies agreed to pay their respective fines, but E-Juice Vapor refused to cooperate with the Attorney General's investigation.

As a result, Ferguson filed a lawsuit against E-Juice Vapor, which the company has now agreed to settle for $375,000. The companies who immediately agreed to comply with Washington law and change their online policies saw fines between $7,000 and $50,000. The AGO says E-Juice Vapor is paying more specifically both because it refused to cooperate and because it sold significantly more products in Washington than the other retailers.

The money will be used to fund other programs enforcing Washington's vape product laws.

The sweep was part of an ongoing effort from the state of Washington to combat what the Attorney General's Office calls a "youth vaping epidemic." In September, Ferguson sued JUUL, the largest vape company in the country, for their advertising campaigns targeting children.

The U.S. Surgeon General's Office does note that there has been a sharp increase in tobacco use in minors, tied to the growth of the vape industry over the past decade. For example, in 2011 just .06 percent of American middle schoolers had ever used e-cigarettes. By 2019 one in ten middle schoolers had. Similarly, in 2016 13 percent of Washington high school sophomores used vape products. Just two years later, in 2018, that number had ballooned to 21 percent.