The FTC finally opens an inquiry into e-cigarette marketing practices

Years after Juul was created, months after a rash of vaping related lung injuries were reported, and weeks after the government started pulling flavored e-cigs from store shelves, the FTC has decided to investigate the marketing practices of the e-cigarette industry.

The FTC wants six major e-cigarette manufacturers to turn over marketing data by January 2, the agency announced Thursday. Juul Labs, RJ Reynolds Vapor Company, NJOY LLC, Nu Mark, Logic Technology Development, and Fontem US have been asked to put together reports “concerning the sales, practices, and methods of advertising” their vaping products from 2015 through 2018.

The FTC wants to know things like annual sales and giveaways of e-cigarette products, product flavors, advertising and promotional budgets, e-cigarette product placement, and the websites and social media accounts used to advertise or sell e-cigarettes, affiliate programs, influencer marketing, and college campus programs.

Basically, they want to know if the e-cig companies targeted teens or if they accidentally unleashed a teen vaping epidemic on the country that had been seeing a downward trend of teen smoking.