San Francisco city attorney sues three online retailers for illegal sales of flavored tobacco produc

  The San Francisco City Attorney has sued three online retailers for illegally selling flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco products, saying the action is intended to protect the public from the health risks of tobacco products. The three companies are accused of violating the law by shipping these products into San Francisco.

According to a Dec. 6 report by Sfexaminer, the San Francisco City Attorney has filed lawsuits against three online retailers for illegally selling flavored e-cigarettes and tobacco products in the city.

At a Tuesday press conference, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said the lawsuits accuse Gashiro Technology LLC, DASMOKey LLC, and Millennial One Inc. of violating California law by selling flavored tobacco products and flavored e-cigarette products to consumers over the internet.

In 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a widely supported law banning the sale of flavored tobacco products.

Chiu said, “By filing this lawsuit, we are sending a clear message to tobacco retailers that their products cannot be sold in San Francisco.”

Chiu said his office ordered and received fruit- and dessert-flavored disposable e-cigarettes from the three sellers, products designed to appeal to young people. The City Attorney added that these companies violated the law by shipping the products to San Francisco.

The three companies named in the lawsuits did not clearly state on their websites that they would not ship products to places like California, where the sale of flavored products is prohibited.

In 2017, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors banned the sale of flavored products such as menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes, becoming the first city in the nation to do so. Voters affirmed the ban in a June vote the following year, and the law took effect one month later.

In 2020, California lawmakers followed San Francisco’s lead, and Newsom signed the bill just hours after it passed in August of that year.

This state law has been fiercely contested by companies with a stake in the matter. Tobacco companies R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris, and ITG Brands funded a 2022 ballot measure in an attempt to overturn the legislation, but the effort was rejected by the state’s highest court.