Stringent Laws Put Vaping Businesses on Thin Ice

There is a reckoning coming for the vaping industry. Concerned about the growth in youth vaping and nonsmokers developing addictions, governments are moving to prohibit the sale of disposable vaporizers.

Big tobacco corporations want to get in on the rapidly expanding vape business as cigarette income is starting to drop. 28 nations had outlawed the sale of e-cigarettes as of October. Given their increasing popularity, the UK, Germany, France, Ireland, and Belgium are among the nations investigating ways to outlaw single-use or disposable electronic cigarettes. Regulating that, though, would be difficult.

Last week, the world's most popular disposable e-cigarette in only two years is the Elf Bar, a tiny, colorful gadget that has sold billions of units and became the clear preference among teenage vapers in the United States.

The initial confiscation of some of the company's products was made public by US officials last week as part of an operation to seize 1.4 million illicit, flavored e-cigarettes from China. Officials estimated that the goods, which included brands other than Elf Bar, were worth $18 million.

However, according to court filings and public records the Chinese manufacturers of Elf Bar and other e-cigarettes have regularly evaded taxes and import fees, customs, and imports totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Disposables with fruit and candy tastes started to arrive in the United States just before Chinese authorities outlawed vaping flavors last year. However, vaping CEOs and health experts point out that the ban only happened after e-cigarettes started to threaten traditional cigarette sales, which bring in $200 billion a year for China's state-run tobacco monopoly. Officials there said they were acting to safeguard children's health.

Easy Concealment of Vaping Devices in the US?

E-cigarettes that are disposable can soon fall prey to their own success. Citing the negative effects of single-use goods on the environment and underage consumption, countries from Australia to England are moving toward outlawing them.

The outcry from throughout the world may cause vaping businesses to concentrate even more on the United States, where it is simple to conceal e-cigarettes among the hundreds of shipments that arrive by air and sea every day due to legal loopholes and slack enforcement.

The main offering from privately held Shenzhen iMiracle, which is situated in the vast Chinese industrial center of Shenzhen, where over 95% of the world's e-cigarettes are made, is Elf Bar.

According to market researcher ECigIntellective, Elf Bar, Lost Mary, and a few more iMiracle products are predicted to produce between $3.5 billion and $4 billion globally this year.

Recently, iMiracle in the United States gave up on the Elf Bar moniker because of a trademark dispute and attempts by authorities to confiscate its shipments. Rather, its goods are offered in tastes like frozen creamsicle and watermelon ice under the brand name EB Create.