Congress Amends the PACT Act to Apply to All Vaping Products, Placing Huge Burden on Small Manufacturers as Third-Party Common Carriers Refuse to Ship Products

Twist E-liquids is committed to providing its audience the latest news and information about issues that affect vaping and the community. In 2020, the PACT Act was signed into law in the U.S. and it has major implications on how vaping companies and consumers will be able to distribute and receive their beloved flavors.

 

Background

As part of the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,” in the most recent COVID-19 relief bill signed into law on December 27, 2020 during the Trump administration, Congress amended the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (“PACT”) Act to apply to e-cigarettes and ALL vaping products. Key takeaways:

• It will require interstate shippers to report cigarette sales to state tobacco tax administrators in order to combat illicit sales and tax avoidance.
• The PACT Act also requires sellers to file a monthly report with the state tobacco tax administrator and any other local or tribal entity that taxes the sale of cigarettes.
• The PACT Act also prohibits the use of the U.S. Postal Service (“USPS”) to deliver cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products directly to consumers.
• The Postal Service has not yet published any clarifying regulations in this regard, but companies should anticipate the mail ban going into effect on or about April 27, 2021.

The PACT Act has historically exempted businesses-to-business deliveries from the USPS ban. Companies seeking to use USPS for business-to-business deliveries must first submit an application to the USPS Pricing and Classification Service Center and comply with several other shipping, labeling, and delivery requirements. The Postal Service’s yet-to-be-published clarifying regulations could address whether business-to-business deliveries will remain permitted for consumers.

 

Additional Threats

Critically for the vapor industry, the most commonly used carriers, Federal Express and United Parcel Service (UPS), have recently announced that they would cease all deliveries of vapor products. According to Vaping360, as of March 1, 2021, FedEx will begin prohibiting “electronic cigarettes, vaping liquids, and other vaping products in the FedEx global network.” A UPS spokesperson also told Vaping360 that, effective April 5, 2021, “UPS will not transport vaping products to, from, or within the United States due to the increased complexity to ship those products.”

 

Key Dates

• FedEx to Stop Shipping Vapes by March 1, 2021 
• UPS to End Vape Delivery by April 5, 2021
• USPS to End Vape Shipping by April 27, 2021

 

Takeaway

Without effective delivery options, PACT Act compliance becomes moot. Twist E-liquids is one of the many vapor businesses, which are exploring arrangements with private logistics and transportation companies, as well as expensive software solutions to help comply with the PACT Act requirements. Twist E-liquids will keep its consumers,  wholesale partners, and retailers updated on developments with a commitment to keep providing them with award-winning Twist E-liquids PMTA Accepted line of freebase and salt flavors.

 

Source: Nat’l Law Review