Elf Bar finds an easy way around US vape import ban: a name change
Chinese disposable e-cigarettes from Elf Bar remain widely available in the U.S. more than four months after U.S. health regulators moved to ban their importation
WASHINGTON — Four months after U.S. regulators tried to block imports of Elf Bar, the top-selling Chinese disposable e-cigarette remains widely available thanks to a simple but effective tactic: a name change.
Stores in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York and other cities remain fully stocked with the brightly colored vapes, sold in fruity flavors like strawberry melon and claiming to contain 5,000 “puffs” per device.
The Food and Drug Administration considers the products illegal. In May, it directed customs officials to seize incoming shipments of Elf Bar and EBDesign, two of the company's U.S. brand names.
The newer vaping devices bear a different name, EBCreate, and list different Chinese manufacturers than those targeted by the FDA.
The makeover underscores the FDA’s inability to stanch the flow of unauthorized e-cigarettes into the U.S., mainly through large shipping hubs like Los Angeles and Houston.
“E-cigarette manufacturers have proven themselves to not operate in good faith,” said Desmond Jenson, an attorney at the Public Health Law Center. “Until there’s something global that’s a deterrent to selling illegal products this is going to be the status quo.”
Jenson’s group and others have urged the FDA to require unique identification codes on all FDA-regulated tobacco products, which would allow customs to spot and seize illegal products. But the FDA has never proposed such a system, despite receiving the authority from Congress nearly 15 years ago.
FDA's tobacco director, Brian King, said the agency is monitoring instances where companies try to
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