{"id":36506,"date":"2025-04-09T18:00:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T18:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/?p=36506"},"modified":"2025-04-09T18:00:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T18:00:06","slug":"mayor-adams-corporation-counsel-goode-trufant-announce-lawsuit-against-nine-major-national-distributors-for-illegally-selling-disposable-flavored-e-cigarettes-celebrate-new-phase-of-highly-successfu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/36506","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Adams, Corporation counsel Goode-Trufant announce lawsuit against nine major national distributors for illegally selling disposable flavored E-cigarettes, celebrate new phase of highly successful “operation padlock to protect” initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWYORK: New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant announced that the city of New York has filed a federal lawsuit against nine of the largest nationwide distributors of disposable e-cigarettes, popularly known as \u201cvapes\u201d \u2014 the most popular devices for nicotine use among middle and high school youth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The defendants \u2014 all of whom have close relationships with e-cigarette manufacturers in China \u2014 are alleged to be distributing e-cigarettes with such youth-attracting flavors as pink lemonade, watermelon, banana ice, lychee ice, and cool mint to sub-distributors in the city that then supply them to retail stores or sell them directly to consumers in New York City and around the country through online sales, violating nearly every applicable federal, New York state, and New York City law governing the sale of e-cigarettes.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit seeks to block these so-called \u201cmaster distributors\u201d from further sales of these illegal items into New York City, seeks both monetary damages and penalties, and marks the continuing effort by the Adams administration to curb illegal sales of flavored e-cigarettes, which are appealing and addictive, especially to teens.<\/p>\n

\u201cNicotine addiction among middle and high school youth is exploding \u2014 fueled in large part to the targeting of our children. Today\u2019s lawsuit not only builds on our previous two lawsuits against distributors and wholesalers, but makes clear that we will do whatever it takes to keep our children safe and enforce the law when it comes to illegal vape sales,\u201d said\u00a0Mayor Adams.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding on the resounding success of \u2018Operation Padlock to Protect\u2019 and the sealing of more than 1,370 illegal cannabis shops, we are taking every step in our power to stop the flow of harmful products to young New Yorkers. We are also hopeful landlords will now move to get legitimate businesses into their vacant storefronts and look forward to what this next phase will bring for our local economy. Every day, we are working to make New York City the best place on the globe to raise a family, and a key part of that mission is protecting the health of our children, which we continue to do every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case builds on the city\u2019s ongoing efforts to hold predatory companies accountable for undermining public health and fueling an epidemic of vaping among youth in our communities,\u201d said\u00a0Corporation Counsel Goode-Trufant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud of the incredible work ‘Operation Padlock to Protect’ has done to rid our communities of the illegal cannabis shops that were plaguing our neighborhoods,\u201d said\u00a0New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative is one of the greatest examples of community and law enforcement at its best, with multiple agencies working together to deliver extremely quick and meaningful results that make New Yorkers safer and healthier. We will continue to enforce the law and ensure that illegal operators are held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is illegal to sell flavored e-cigarettes in New York City,\u201d said\u00a0City Hall Chief Counsel Allison Stoddart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this new lawsuit against nine distributors, the Adams administration is continuing to hold companies accountable when they put profits over the health of New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defendants in the lawsuit are:<\/p>\n

10 Days, Inc. d\/b\/a Pod Juice: A California corporation with a principal place of business in Agoura Hills, California.<\/p>\n

EVO Brands, LLC: A Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n

Midwest Goods Inc.: A corporation formed under the laws of the State of Illinois with a principal place of business in Bensenville, Illinois.<\/p>\n

MYL\u00c9 VAPE INC.: A New York corporation with a principal place of business in Ridgefield, New Jersey and Jamaica, New York.<\/p>\n

MVH I, Inc.: A New York corporation with its principal place of business in Ridgefield, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Puff BAR Inc.: A corporation formed under the laws of the State of California with its principal place of business in Glendale, California.<\/p>\n

PVG2, LLC, d\/b\/a, \u201cPuff Bar\u201d: A Delaware limited liability company with its principal place of business in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n

Safa Goods LLC: A Florida limited liability company with its principal place of business in Port Charlotte, Florida.<\/p>\n

SV3, LLC d\/b\/a Mi-One Brands: An Arizona limited liability company with its principal place of business in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n

The dangers of e-cigarettes to youth led the\u00a0US food and drug administration FDA in January 2020 to ban flavored vape products.<\/p>\n

Most e-cigarettes provide nicotine levels far exceeding that of conventional cigarettes.<\/p>\n

Further, federal health authorities, such as the U.S. Surgeon General and the FDA, say fruit, cola, and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes tempt kids to vape high levels of nicotine. Cartoon character packaging on e-cigarettes and devices that look like toys or include mini-games target youth and have contributed to the epidemic of nicotine addiction among youth.<\/p>\n

As cited in today’s lawsuit \u2014 filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York \u2014 the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data in 2024, showing 14 percent (3.8 million) of middle and high school students reported ever using e-cigarettes, and 3.5 percent (410,000) of middle school and 7.8 percent (1.2 million) of high school students reported using e-cigarettes within the past 30 days.<\/p>\n

More than one in four (26.3 percent) of current youth e-cigarette users reported using an e-cigarette product daily. More than one in three (38.4 percent) youth e-cigarette users reported using e-cigarettes in at least 20 of the last 30 days.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges that the nine defendants violated the prevent all cigarette trafficking Act, a federal law that effectively bars the sale of any e-cigarettes except in face-to-face transactions.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s case represents an ongoing effort by the Adams administration to ensure compliance with laws that protect public health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEWYORK: New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant announced that the city of New York has filed a federal lawsuit against nine of the largest nationwide distributors of disposable e-cigarettes, popularly known as \u201cvapes\u201d \u2014 the most popular devices for nicotine use among middle and high school youth. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1469,31,1378],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york","category-news","category-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36509,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36506\/revisions\/36509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}