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US: CBP And FDA Seize Illicit Vaping Products at Dallas Airport

Working in conjunction with agents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, seized 33,681 units of vaping products imported from China.

Diane Caruana

January 28, 2021

The seized shipments included individual disposable flavoured e-cigarette cartridges resembling the Puff Bar brand, including Puff XXL and Puff Flow.

The seized products amounted to a total retail price of $719,453, and consisted of 42 separate shipments arriving from China and destined to various Texas counties. The shipments included individual disposable flavoured e-cigarette cartridges resembling the Puff Bar brand, including Puff XXL and Puff Flow.

“Many counterfeit, unapproved or unauthorized products are likely produced in unregulated facilities with unverified ingredients posing a serious health concern to consumers. It is especially alarming when these types of counterfeit and unauthorized products find their way into the hands of children as studies indicate,” said CBP Port Director Timothy Lemaux. “We will continue to take every opportunity to work with our partners at the FDA to intercept and seize products that threaten U.S. consumers.”

Regulated as tobacco products, e-cigarettes imported or offered for import into the U.S. must comply with all applicable U.S. laws. “The FDA continues to prioritize enforcement against e-cigarette products, specifically those most appealing and accessible to youth,” said Mitch Zeller, J.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.

“We are very concerned about how popular these products are with youth. This seizure makes clear to tobacco product manufacturers, retailers and importers that the FDA is keeping a close watch on the marketplace and will hold accountable those companies that violate tobacco laws and regulations.”

Court of Appeals upholds FDA’s classification of e-cigs as tobacco products

Last month, the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal saying that the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products violates the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.

Represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group, Michigan-based e-liquid manufacturer Moose Jooce, argued that the FDA’s then-associate commissioner for policy Leslie Kux, who issued the 2016 rule deeming e-cigarettes to be tobacco products, lacked the authority to do so because she was a career employee, not a principal officer appointed by the president.

The FDA countered that while the authority had been delegated to Kux by the agency’s commissioner, it did not even matter since the regulation was ultimately ratified by two different FDA commissioners, most recently FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in April 2019.

Read Further: FDA