Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy has launched a lawsuit against Puff Bar and Cool Clouds Distribution Inc., accusing the e-cigarette seller of violating Massachusetts law by selling favored tobacco products, and making them easily accessible to minors.

This e-cigarette lawsuit is the latest in Attorney General Healy’s string of a dozen lawsuits challenging e-cigarettes. It is part of Massachusetts’ aggressive approach to attempting to curb a growing e-cigarette trend both in the state and around the country. One part of this effort was Massachusetts’ move to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products. This ban was the first of its kind in the country, and went into effect on June 1. Now, Attorney General Healey asserts that companies like Puff Bar are not heeding the new law.

Specifically, the new e-cigarette law banned the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and e-liquids. The ban first started with specific products, and has now become fully implemented, banning even the sale of menthol-flavored liquids and products, which have, in some cases, been left out of such e-cigarette bans. 

Attorney General Healy’s claim against Puff Bar was two-fold. She asserted both that the company was continuing to sell flavored e-cigarettes in Massachusetts, and had sold them in a way that let them easily be purchased by minors.

She challenged the company’s online sales of flavored products, made accessible to those making purchases in Massachusetts. She notes that the company sells 20 flavored e-cigarettes.

Suit Alleges That Puff Bar Marketed to Minors

The Massachusetts Puff Bar flavored e-cigarette sale lawsuit also challenges the ways in which the company allegedly markets to minors. Attorney General Healy states that on a technical level, the company does not have systems in place that prevent people from ordering the products if they are not of age.

From a marketing standpoint, she asserts that the company intentionally markets to young people and teens. This is an accusation she has launched against other e-cigarette sellers in the past. In the case of Puff Bar, the attorney general challenges the seller’s use of these allegedly unlawful flavored vape products to attract teens. 

She states that many of the products are flavored with sweet flavors that are likely to attract young users. For example, she notes that one flavor is called “O.M.G.,” and is a combination of  orange, mango, and guava, while another flavor is dubbed “Blue Razz” described as tasting like candy and “making vaping feel like a blue and red raspberry.”

This is a common accusation launched against e-cigarette companies — that they intentionally market products to young people by disguising them or making them seem akin to candy. Critics have speculated that this focus on the youth market was the e-cigarette market’s attempt to avoid competing with an audience already loyal to Big Tobacco. In sum, critics have asserted that vape companies used youth-targeted marketing to carve out a new market and create a new generation of tobacco users.

Nicotine can have a powerful addictive effect when it is used at a young age, setting a user up for a lifelong nicotine addiction, explains the FDA.

 According to some concerned parties, vape companies do not adequately inform young people of the risks of vaping, making the products seem fun and harmless. Some worry that teens who use vapes now may have a difficult time quitting, and e-cigarette companies will have addicted customers for years to come. 

The Massachusetts Puff Bar Flavored E-Cigarette Sale Lawsuit is Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Puff Bar, et al., Case No. 2084CV01525, in the Suffolk County Superior Court.