The US FDA And CBP Jointly Carried Out An Operation, Seizing Goods Worth Nearly 34 Million US Dollars, And Sending Warning Letters To 24 Tobacco Manufacturers.

On May 22nd, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that nearly 2 million unauthorized e-cigarette products were seized in Chicago, with an estimated retail value of 33.8 million US dollars. These seizures were carried out in collaboration with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in February this year as part of a federal joint operation aimed at inspecting inbound goods and preventing illegal e-cigarettes from entering the country.
During this operation, the team discovered various shipments of illegal e-cigarette products, almost all of which originated from China and were intended for distribution in various states of the United States. FDA and CBP staff determined that many of these unauthorized e-cigarette shipments contained ambiguous product descriptions and incorrect values, which were clearly an attempt to evade tariffs and undergo import safety reviews.
"FDA can and will take more measures in cooperation with our federal partners to prevent the illegal import and distribution of e-cigarette products in the United States," said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. "The seizure of illegal e-cigarettes removes unauthorized products from the United States and away from our country's young people."
These seizures are another example of coordinated compliance and law enforcement actions by federal agencies to curb the distribution and sale of illegal e-cigarettes. Prior to this operation, the FDA and CBP joint team identified potentially non-compliant inbound goods and completed other investigation work. The team was also able to successfully implement several new internal efficiency and procedures based on previous operations.
"We continue to see an increasing number of e-cigarette-related products being packaged and labeled incorrectly to avoid detection," said Dr. Bret Koplow, Ph.D., J.D., the acting director of the FDA's Tobacco Products Center. "However, we have successfully prevented these shipments from entering the US supply chain - despite our efforts to hide the true identities of these unauthorized e-cigarette products."
Most of the shipments violated the FDA's Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), and some products were also confiscated for infringing on intellectual property rights (IPR) due to unauthorized use of protected trademarks. All the e-cigarette products seized in this operation did not receive the FDA's mandatory pre-market authorization order and therefore could not be legally marketed or distributed in the United States.
The standard practice for confiscating products from the government includes legal disposal of the products. For unauthorized new tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, this usually means they will be destroyed.
The FDA also sent import information letters to 24 tobacco importers and entry declarants responsible for importing these illegal e-cigarettes. These letters informed the recipients that providing false statements or entering the country is a federal crime, and the FDA sought information on the measures they took to ensure compliance with applicable federal tobacco laws and regulations. Specifically, these letters recommended that companies ensure their import entries contain complete and accurate information. Failure to do so could also be regarded as an intentional attempt to evade FDA reviews of the goods. The letters required companies to reply within 30 days and provide the requested information.

The FDA and CBP are members of the federal task force focused on enforcing regulations related to e-cigarettes. Previous joint actions by the FDA and CBP included seizing illegal e-cigarettes worth $18 million at a cargo inspection point in Los Angeles International Airport in 2023, seizing illegal e-cigarettes worth $7 million in a warehouse in Miami, and announcing operations in Chicago in June and October 2024, seizing illegal e-cigarettes worth over $77 million.
In addition to product seizures, the FDA has sent over 750 warning letters to companies that manufacture, sell, or distribute unauthorized new tobacco products. It has also sent over 800 warning letters to retailers selling these products and filed civil penalty complaints against 87 manufacturers and over 175 retailers for their distribution or sales.