Attorney General Brenna Bird Urges Payment Processors to Stop Transactions of Illegal Vapes Hurting Iowa Children

DES MOINES-Attorney General Brenna Bird announced today she is leading a coalition of 13 attorneys general in a letter to credit card companies urging them to stop sales of illegal vape products facilitated through their payment card networks.

Illegal vapes, overwhelmingly manufactured in China, now account for almost all of the U.S. vape market, generating over $11 billion in annual retail sales and making up more than 80% of all vape sales nationwide. The only way those illegal products can be distributed are through financial institutions and payment processors. In short, thousands of unauthorized e-cigs and vapes continue to use these platforms to facilitate illegal transactions of illegal products. Distributing and selling these products violates many federal and state laws.

"We know that China continues to illegally market candy-flavored vapes, with flavors like cotton candy and blue raspberry, to American kids while they are actually banned in China," said Attorney General Bird. "These Chinese vapes - and selling them - are illegal. Credit card companies need to work with us to stop the flow of these illegal vapes that are hurting our kids."

The attorneys general are asking Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover to stop the flow of these illegal and unsafe products. There is a strong precedent for public-private cooperation in this area. In 2005, state attorneys general and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives successfully worked with payment card networks to stop the illegal sale of cigarettes over the internet.

The states urge the credit card companies to identify and remove merchants that sell illicit vapes from their networks and to publicize what steps they have taken so far to combat this problem.

The Iowa-led letter is joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.

Read the full letter here.

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Contact: Jen Green | [email protected]