New calls to relax or remove electronic cigarette rules
Prominent high-tech think tanks such as libertarian leaning Tech Freedom and popular information brokers like High Tech Forum are joining in to pressure the new congress into picking up where it left off last April after the Cole-Bishop amendment fizzled out after committee (read more here from KHLaw.com on that amendment). The Cole-Bishop amendment, which would have rolled back the FDA deeming rule as it relates to electronic cigarette merchants, is seen as a model by a group of 13 mainly libertarian and free market leaning groups. You can download a PDF of the letter from the Tech Freedom website here http://docs.techfreedom.org/TF_Coalition_Letter_Vaping_1.17.17.pdf.
The Morning Consult has a nice article on this news as well, you can read it here. www.morningconsult.com/2017/01/17/tech-groups-join-call-congress-ease-fdas-e-cigarette-rules/
Impact on vape merchants
We have seen a flurry of activity as the card associations have taken action based on the new regulatory environment. In response to some of the uncertainty we are taking extra time with new vape merchants, assisting them with quick set up, low-stress, streamlined registration merchant account recommendations, setting them up with high-risk friendly gateway options like NMI, and working with them find vendors that fit their needs, whether that be no reserve merchant processing, the ability to manage more than one web property and product line from one gateway log-in, or even to provide referrals to industry attorneys that we have interacted with that have shown to be cost effective, and fast when needed.
If you are a new or existing vape merchant looking for some e-commerce advice, please drop us a line anytime, we are happy to talk.