States Are Cracking Down on Illicit Chinese Vapes with Directory Laws

We’ve previously written about the efforts President Trump and his administration have taken to crack down on illegal Chinese vaping products, the producers of which have been skirting U.S. law to sell unsanctioned and untested products to American consumers. Tens of millions of dollars’ worth of illegal Chinese vape products have been found and seized at a time between the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 

Laudably, policymakers have not just been relying on federal enforcement actions in order to protect the American public from these illicit products. Rather, state lawmakers have begun taking steps to also address the sale of illegal Chinese vaping products within their own borders by passing laws to create directories of tobacco products approved for sale in their states. 

The following is summary of some of the efforts that states are taking to end illegal and dangerous Chinese vape product smuggling. The Protecting America Initiative endorses these efforts and will work with lawmakers across the country to duplicate these enforcement laws in other states.  

North Carolina 

In June of 2024, the North Carolina legislature passed House Bill 900, which created a new registry of products that have been authorized for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The vapor certification directory is overseen by the North Carolina Department of Revenue, and only items that appear on this list will be eligible for sale within the state. Under the law, beginning March 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, every manufacturer of vape products must submit to the Secretary of the Department of Revenue a certification that their product was approved, denied, or otherwise remains under review by or exempt from the FDA. Retailers must remove products from their inventory that are not listed as acceptable for sale on the directory, and those products may not be purchased or sold for retail sale within North Carolina.   

Although the bill was challenged in court by vape manufacturers, retailers, and a trade group for conflicting with federal tobacco law, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law at the end of July 2026, with the majority opinion writing that even if the FDA were allowing unapproved vape products to enter the market, “North Carolina remains free to prohibit the sale of those products within its borders. That is a valid exercise of North Carolina’s police powers …” 

Pennsylvania 

Pennsylvania lawmakers passed House Bill 1425 in December 2025 to create the Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) Directory, which establishes the products that may be sold within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The directory is administered by the Attorney General, and manufacturers wishing to sell their vape products within Pennsylvania “must submit a certification to the Attorney General by April 21, 2026 and by April 21 of each year after 2026 to remain on the directory” that the manufacturer has received a marketing order granted by the FDA or meets one of the other exemptions.  

Starting on October 19, 2026, the Attorney General will begin enforcement actions under the law to target the continued availability of vape products that would then be illegal to sell. Retailers that do not comply with the law face fines for each unauthorized product, up to $1,500 per day per product and revocation of their license.  

Iowa  

House File 2677, which was approved in May 2024, charges the Iowa Department of Revenue with the responsibility to create a publicly available vapor products directory to which manufacturers must “annually certify … that each vapor product has either received a marketing authorization or similar order from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA); or that the vapor product was marketed in the United States as of August 8, 2016, the manufacturer submitted a premarket tobacco product application for the product to the FDA on or before September 9, 2020, and the application either remains under review by the FDA or a final decision on the application has not otherwise taken effect.” 

In December 2024, the law was challenged in court by a collective of vaping businesses and organizations, arguing that HF 2677 was preempted by federal law. This summer, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the preliminary injunction against HF 2677 that had prevented the state from enforcing the law and remanded the case back to federal District Court. With the injunction lifted, the Iowa Department of Revenue expects to publish the first vapor products directory on October 15 and begin enforcing penalties for violations of the vapor products directory on November 16. 

Louisiana 

State lawmakers in Louisiana passed House Bill 635 in June 2023, requiring the Commissioner of the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) to develop and maintain a directory of vape products that are eligible to be sold within the state of Louisiana. Under the law, vape manufacturers must certify that they have “received a marketing order or other authorization pursuant to federal law for the product from the FDA.”   

Although the law was challenged as unconstitutional by the Louisiana Convenience and Vape Association in 2023, by March of 2024, the Louisiana ATC had resumed enforcement of the law. 

More States Should Follow Suit to Protect Their Residents 

These states have shown that an effective and relatively simple way to protect their constituents from illicit, unsanctioned, and risky Chinese-manufactured vape products is to condition the sale of any vape products upon a public certification that these products have received a marketing order from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or are otherwise exempt. Any products found to be for sale at a retailer that are not part of the public directory are subject to seizure and would result in fines.  

The effectiveness of these laws, however, is contingent upon our law enforcement professionals being invested in exercising their authority under these statutes to ensure compliance. Consistent enforcement of these laws in vape and smoke shops should have the added positive, cascading effect of reducing serious crime as well as these retail establishments have become a hotbed for criminal activity. Just this year alone, the owners of nearly 100 smoke shops in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky pleaded guilty to felony drug trafficking and organized crime; more than a dozen smoke shops in Riverside, California were shut down for offenses such as the sale of illegal narcotics, the possession of firearms and other weapons, operation of illegal gambling, and money laundering; and 13 vape shops in Northern Virginia were caught in a massive drug-trafficking ring spanning multiple cities and counties.  

The modest step of enacting vape directory laws and ensuring compliance, if taken up by more and more states, could protect millions of Americans from illegal and potentially dangerous Chinese vaping products in addition to having the knock-on effect of incentivizing greater law enforcement oversight at the very same retailers that are more likely to be host to serious criminal violations. That should be a winning proposition for state lawmakers across the country.