As the legal-action antismoking organization whose legal complaints [1] about the facilitation by credit card companies and others of the illegal Internet sales of cigarettes led to a crackdown by many attorneys general, [2] we write to advise your company of its potential legal liability related to its continuing sale of e-cigarettes.
As noted in an NPR piece [3] in which I participated, the FDA has clearly announced that e-cigarettes are subject to FDA approval as a drug or medical device, much like nicotine patches, gums and inhalers and therefore they are illegal until they are cleared.[4] [emphasis added] Despite this, Amazon.com is continuing to sell these devices in interstate commerce, and in apparent violation of consumer protection laws in many individual states.[5]
Recently ASH wrote to all 50 attorneys general asking them to take legal action against the illegal sales of such products. To date, at least one state has forced two different companies to cease selling these illegal products. PayPal, after being warned by ASH, has stopped facilitating their sale, and Facebook is refusing their ads.[6]
As the FDA [7] and others [8] have noted, e-cigarettes pose a wide variety of potential dangers to users,[9] and perhaps also to those around them, both of whom inhale a mixture of nicotine (a dangerous addictive drug) and propylene glycol (which is used in antifreeze and may cause respiratory tract irritation). Thus, in addition to liability for selling an illegal product, Amazon.com might well be named as a defendant should an e-cigarette user or a family member claim that some medical problem was caused by an e-cigarette allegedly sold by Amazon.com.
