A hearing on California’s AB 1500, which would place restrictions on the sale of e-cigarette products via the Internet, has been postponed until May 14.
“While CASAA supports bans on sales to minors, we oppose any restrictions that impose unnecessary burdens on adult consumers. Requiring age verification before delivery (with third-party database verification), and then mandating a delivery service with age-verified signature required–and requiring it each and every time an order is delivered to a particular address–imposes an unnecessary burden on adult consumers, especially those who are not able to be present at the time of delivery.”
–CASAA
AB 1500 would amend California’s Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) act, and make it a crime to deliver an electronic cigarette without first obtaining the full name, birth date and residential address of the person to whom it will be delivered, and then validating the information “through the use of a commercially available database or aggregate of databases, consisting primarily of data from government sources.” Violations of the law would carry fines up to $1,000 per violation.
Previous version of the legislation would have banned the sale of electronic cigarettes unless the seller had obtained a tobacco license, but advocacy group CASAA credits the efforts of vapers for getting the bill amended to its current version. However, they say, the requirement to provide vendors with personal information every time they make a purchase would still place an undue burden on consumers, as well as increase the cost of the devices.
Hearing on California Internet Sales Restrictions Postponed
