USPS has opened their comment section relating to the Vape Mail Ban. Help USPS and congress members understand the importance of having smoking alternatives. Make sure that your voice is heard and submit a comment here:
CASAA - VAPE MAIL BAN COMMENT PERIOD IS OPEN
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Along with welcome coronavirus economic relief, the 2021 omnibus spending bill that Congress passed on Dec. 21 2020 contains serious restrictions on vape product shipping that will change the retail vape market for the worse.
The “Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act” was described by many as the “vape mail ban.” The law does in fact require the U.S. Postal Service to create its own regulations within 120 days banning U.S. Mail delivery of vaping products—whether they contain nicotine or not. In fact, the postal ban and PACT Act provisions will include all e-liquid and oil vaping devices, nicotine and nicotine-free e-liquids, CBD and delta-8 THC liquids and oils, and every related component, part or accessory intended for those products.
Online retailers will be required to:
- Register with the U.S. Attorney General
- Verify age of customers using a commercially available database
- Use private shipping services that collect an adult signature at the point of delivery
- If selling in states that tax vaping products, sellers must register with the federal government and with the tobacco tax administrators of the states
- Collect all applicable local and state taxes, and affix any required tax stamps to the products sold
- Send each taxing state’s tax administrator a list of all transactions with customers in their state, including the names and addresses of each customer sold to, and the quantities and type of each product sold
- Maintain records for five years of any “delivery interrupted because the carrier or service determines or has reason to believe that the person ordering the delivery is in violation of the [PACT Act]”
Sellers who do not register or don’t comply with the shipping and reporting rules of the PACT Act are subject to severe penalties, including up to three years in prison.
Soon after the Congress passed the PACT Act, Fedex and UPS have also announced that they will cease all deliveries of vapor products. Without effective delivery options, online vaping store and manufactures will be challenged to find effective private logistic and transportation company to deliver the vapor products. Current dates for Fedex, UPS and USPS to stop shipping vapor products as follow:
- FedEx to stop Shipping Vapes by March 1, 2021
- UPS to stop Vape Delivery by April 5, 2021
- USPS to stop Vape Shipping by April 27, 2021
On February 19, USPS published its proposal in compliance with the PACT Act: USPS cannot accept or transmit any package that it knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, contains non-mailable smokeless tobacco or cigarettes unless under below circumstances:
- Noncontiguous States: Intrastate shipments within Alaska or Hawaii;
- Business/Regulatory Purposes: Shipments transmitted between verified and authorized tobacco industry businesses for business purposes, or between such businesses and federal or state agencies for regulatory purposes;
- Certain Individuals: Lightweight shipments mailed between adult individuals, limited to 10 per 30-day period;
- Consumer Testing: Limited shipments of cigarettes sent by verified and authorized manufacturers to adult smokers for consumer testing purposes; and
- Public Health: Limited shipments by federal agencies for public health purposes under similar rules applied to manufacturers conducting consumer testing.
These new set of regulations are the strictest regulations yet on the vaping industry and will likely to put many small business out of business. Even if online retailers and manufactures find ways to ship vapor products through private shipping logistics, the cost to ship these products will increase by at least $20 per order if not more. Moreover, due to most private shipping carriers are only dedicated to ship within a few states, and some of them have limited ability to reach rural areas, to purchase a vapor products through online vape store will be extremely difficult once the deadlines hit for ending vapor products delivery through Fedex, UPS and USPS.
