25 US State Attorneys General Pressure Shopify to Remove Illegal Vapes

The California Attorney General and New York City, together with 25 state attorneys general, have sent a letter to Shopify urging it to take stronger measures to crack down on the sale of illegal vapes and other tobacco products. The letter listed dozens of illegal websites and proposed that Shopify establish cooperation mechanisms with various states to jointly block the sales chain of unapproved products.

Quickly overview the key points:
1. 25 state attorneys general in the United States have jointly signed a letter requesting Shopify to prevent illegal vape sales.
2. The letter lists 29 illegal vape websites still operating on the Shopify platform.
3. The attachment contains over 200 websites selling illegal tobacco products.
4. Propose to establish a cooperation framework to strengthen the identification and removal of illegal sellers.
5. Attorney General Bonta has previously sued vape manufacturers and sellers multiple times.

According to a press release from the California Department of Justice (DOJ), California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the City of New York jointly led a letter to Canadian e-commerce company Shopify on behalf of attorneys general from 25 states, urging the company to increase efforts to eliminate merchants who use the platform to sell illegal vapes and other tobacco products.
Shopify is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada and claims to be a global e-commerce platform that helps businesses with online and offline sales. Although its policies have prohibited illegal transactions and have previously banned some non compliant sellers at the request of California authorities, multiple state attorneys general have pointed out that illegal vape sales continue to be banned and there are loopholes in platform governance.

Bonta stated:
It is currently too easy to purchase vapes online. We have taken action against individual sellers in the past, but many still use Shopify’s system to sell illegal products. We urge Shopify to take responsibility and work together to address this public health threat.

The letter mainly includes:

• 29 websites that are still selling illegal vapes on the Shopify platform;
• The attachment lists over 200 websites that illegally sell tobacco products;
• Suggest Shopify establish a cooperation mechanism with the state government to share information and eliminate non compliant merchants.

Vape is strictly regulated due to their high addiction and health risks. California passed Senate Bill 793 (Hill) in 2020 to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, and in 2024 passed Congressional Bill 3218 (Wood) to strengthen enforcement and establish the “Unflavored Tobacco Products List (UTL)”, which will be released by December 31, 2025.
At the federal level, all electronic cigarette products must be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
So far, the FDA has only approved 39 vape products, limited to tobacco and menthol flavors. Unauthorized products are considered ‘adulterated’ and cross state sales are illegal.

This joint letter was also signed by the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Puerto Rico.

Ricky, COO of Dank Smoke, is a professional Google SEO engineer. He said that vapes have always been a highly anticipated industry. With the continuous improvement and reduction of laws and regulations, online sales of vapes have become the last track. As Shopify is the largest vape online stores group, with its regulation, non compliant vapes will become increasingly difficult to sell. Recently, I search The Best Shopify Store for Vapes in 2024 from Shopifyspy. And got some good selling online vape stores as fowlloing picture.