Session: Evaluating the Impact of Federal Enforcement on the Illegal ENDS Market

Speaker: – Lillian Ortega, Joslynn Watkins, Kevin Burd and Bryan Burd

Date: September 8th, 2024 – Atlanta, GA

About The Poster:

The illegal marketplace for electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), poses substantial public health risks due to substandard manufacturing, evasion of federal regulatory requirements and the use of unknown ingredients. This abstract evaluates federal enforcement actions from January 2021 to June 2024, assessing the effectiveness of the actions taken by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on the illegal ENDS products. The study approach analyzed the metrics through a lens of regulatory timelines and enforcement priority policies, comparing types of enforcement actions, entities issued actions and impact of the actions. Since January 2021, the FDA has issued over 700 warning letters and filed civil money penalties to manufacturers and retailers. The DOJ filed permanent injunctions against eight tobacco manufacturers. CBP and FDA have conducted seizures at ports and International Mail Facilities of shipments ranging from thousands to millions of dollars in illegal ENDS products. Despite the use of the range of enforcement tools, driven primarily by the FDA and DOJ, the illegal ENDS products such as the youth appealing Elf Bars and Esco Bars are still making it to the retail shelves and into consumers’ hands. Enforcement actions by a single agency alone are insufficient to transform the illegal ENDS marketplace into a compliant and regulated one; a comprehensive, multipronged, whole-of-government approach is required. Leveraging the efforts and insights from all federal agencies that have developed strategies to combat illicit markets for other commodities can be highly beneficial. Enhanced inter-agency collaboration among federal and state partners is crucial to ensure comprehensive compliance with all tobacco-related laws which supports the broader goal of tobacco harm reduction.