The Food and Drug Administration (otherwise known as the FDA) has found itself faced with a lawsuit. The suit has been brought by an outfit called The Right to Be Smoke-Free Coalition, made up of a number of e-cigarette manufacturers and sellers. These include Ruthless and Vapor Shark among 11 plaintiffs in total.
The case has been brought because those involved disagree with the regulations created by the FDA with regard to developing new vaping products. They also believe the ‘one size fits all’ idea is unsuitable when it comes to smaller manufacturers.
According to information in the news this week, the FDA believes every new product would require around $500,000 of investment to go through the regulatory process, including getting it ready to go to market. However, this has been disputed by independent analysts, who believe the cost could be double this or more. This means the big tobacco companies looking to get into the vaping industry to protect their profits would be able to further dominate the market. In contrast, smaller manufacturers would likely be unable to afford to continue.
The Right to Be Smoke-Free Coalition points out that it wants ‘reasonable and responsible laws’ – and clearly it does not believe the current laws and regulations fall into this bracket. Since it is early days and the suit has only just been filed, it remains to be seen whether it gets the results the coalition would like to see.
We’ll be watching closely to see what happens. However, we’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter. Do you believe the industry is becoming over-regulated, both here and in the USA? Do you think smaller companies and businesses should still be able to create and sell products without such high investment required to meet the demands of the law?
