Flavored e-cigarette retailers sued for online sales to S.F.

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office has sued three California ecigarette retailers for allegedly selling flavored vapes online to consumers in San Francisco, which violates a local law banning the sale of such products in the city.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Monday and announced Tuesday, seeks to stop the companies from selling the products, as well as civil penalties and attorneys’ fees.

It is the first lawsuit the city is bringing against online e-cigarette retailers, said a spokeswoman for City Attorney David Chiu. The city has taken previous actions against brick-and-mortar stores.

“We’re bringing this lawsuit to send a clear message to retailers that selling their products won’t be tolerated,” Chiu said. “We’ve done a good job enforcing against brick-and-mortar stores, but unfortunately online retailers are the next frontier in that fight.”

The complaint names three companies — Millennial One, Gashiro Technology and DaSmokey — that allegedly sold to San Francisco consumers online. It does not specify the alleged dates of the sales or quantities that the companies sold to customers. But investigators for the city were able to order fruit- and dessert-flavored e-liquid from the retailers online in September and October, and the products were later shipped to San Francisco addresses, according to the lawsuit.

The retailers also failed to comply with a state law that requires e-cigarette sellers to contact customers prior to shipping the products, and to label the package as tobacco products that require a signature of someone 21 years or older, the complaint said.

These requirements are meant to deter people under 21 from buying ecigarette products.

All three companies are based in Southern California. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

San Francisco in 2019 passed a law banning the sale of e-cigarettes. Juul, the e-cigarette company that at the time was headquartered in San Francisco, attempted to circumvent the ban by introducing and spending millions of dollars on a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would have overturned the ban and allowed the sale of e-cigarettes with new restrictions. San Francisco voters subsequently rejected the measure, allowing the e-cigarette ban to stand.

Public health officials and proponents of the ban have said e-cigarettes are addicting a new generation of users to nicotine.