In the August issue of Smokeshop Magazine, the Troutman Sanders Tobacco Team published an article discussing the path of e-cigarettes to market success and the regulatory challenges currently facing the industry and those challenges likely to be encountered by the industry as the product gains more ground in the marketplace and attracts the attention of competitors and state and federal regulators. For example, several states, including California and New Jersey, have already undertaken efforts to ban e-cigarette smoking. On the other hand, attorneys general in Arkansas and Virginia have concluded that the states’ respective clean air acts cannot be used to regulate e-cigarettes because, among other things, e-cigarettes do not involve the emission of smoke. The article points out that if attempts to ban the use of e-cigarettes are successfully rebuffed (by, for example, constitutional challenges), then the e-cigarette industry must be prepared to similarly rebuff efforts to tax the product at both the state and local level.
Click here to read the article in its entirety.
For questions and/or comments, please contact Bryan Haynes, Troutman Sanders Tobacco practice partner, at 804.697.1420 or by email.