This paper reviews the regulatory actions of the EU, US federal and California governments concerning the regulation of electronic cigarettes.
Regulation concerning electronic cigarettes has been an area of focus in those jurisdictions since the beginning of the last decade. That focus has been driven, in part, by the fact that minors are particularly susceptive to purchasing electronic cigarettes. This is detrimental to their health for two main reasons. First, cigarettes contain nicotine, which has been demonstrated to cause addiction and deleterious effects on the health of young people. These effects include interference with normal brain development and cognition. Second, nicotine-addicted youth may eventually switch to, or concurrently smoke, traditional cigarettes. Decades-worth of research has shown that smoking tobacco-containing traditional cigarettes is even more harmful to the health than smoking nicotine-only products and is, in fact, one of the leading causes of major diseases and death in the EU and the US.
To address these concerns, the referenced governments have enacted complex regulations that have been organized into the following framework for analysis: (1) manufacturing regulations concerning the use of flavorings, (2) health warnings, (3) promotion regulations concerning health-based messaging and events sponsorships, (4) sale regulations concerning minimum age of purchase, self-service sales and distance sales, and (5) taxation concerning ad valorem and specific taxes. For each of those types of regulation, this paper first provides a general overview of what has been regulated and, as relevant, the scientific or other evidence-based rationale for enacting such regulations. Subsequently, the relevant regulations of each jurisdiction are analyzed in turn within the five categories of the framework. Finally, the regulatory actions of all governments are brought together to contextualize the appropriateness of their relative breadth of scope.