We work with e-commerce vape and e-juice clients almost daily, and also help online premium cigar merchants accept payments. Although we can easily place these merchant types with appropriate payment gateways and recommend merchant accounts, we are often asked for our take on bigger issues. Issues such as pending FDA regulations would affect, or already have affected, both of these very different merchant types dramatically. Because of this, we are especially in tune with the news as it relates to the FDA and Congress. There seems to be good news coming from Congress all around as it relates to the proposed regulatory burdens placed on these two regulated online industries, especially from the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.
Electronic cigarette FDA grandfathering proposed for products currently on the market
As part of the 2018 agriculture appropriations bill the United States House of Representatives Appropriations Committee has voted to eliminate the requirement that vape products put on the market after 2007 be forced to go through the expensive and difficult FDA approval process. An attempt by some Democratic lawmakers to block the loosening of vape regulations was voted down by House Republicans and some Democrats on the committee, but the vote was mostly along party lines. Dissenting from his party stance, Rep. Sanford Bishop, (Democrat-Georgia) was a co sponsor of the proposal and stated “e-vapor products are 95 percent less harmful than combustible cigarettes”. The Convenience Store News has a nice write up on this story, read more here.
Premium cigars may also be spared from FDA regulations by the House
In addition to the FDA vape news above, the House Committee on Appropriations has also moved forward with language in the agriculture / FDA funding bill that would dramatically loosen the restrictions proposed on premium cigar sales by the FDA. The CRA (Cigar Rights of America), an industry trade group, released a statement that in part read “Congress continues to recognize the unique differences between premium cigars, and this language is a symbol that any effort by FDA to regulate them would run contrary to the intent of Congress”.
You can read the full Appropriations Committee language on the House.gov site, here.
If you are a vape or cigar merchant looking for payment gateway or no reserve merchant account recommendation, contact us
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