Online searches for flavored tobacco products soared after California banned them in 2022

Last year, Californians voted to ban flavored tobacco products from being sold in the state. But a new study found that Californians appear to be skirting the ban by shopping online.

The study, from the University of California San Diego and published in the journal Tobacco Control, found that online shopping queries were 194% higher than expected for cigarettes and 162% higher for vape products.

“Retailer licensing programs have proven to be effective in enforcing tobacco control laws. However, the exclusion of e-commerce retailers from these programs can undermine their impact,” said UC San Diego Assistant Professor Eric Leas in a statement.

An analysis of the first 60 websites to pop up in a search query for flavored tobacco products turned up at least two online retailers offering to sell banned products to customers in California. One query returned as many as 36 websites willing to do so.

“The absence of explicit regulations on e-commerce sales can create loopholes in enforcing tobacco control laws, allowing consumers to easily access restricted products online,” Leas said.

In 2020, California lawmakers voted for, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed, Senate Bill 793, which banned the sale of most flavored tobacco products in the state. Though the bill carved out numerous exemptions — hookah, expensive cigars, pipe tobacco — the tobacco industry fought hard to overturn the law. That included an unsuccessful referendum in 2022, followed by a failed lawsuit.

The primary targets of the ban were menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco vapes.

At the end of 2022, the flavored tobacco ban went into effect.

But as the UC San Diego study notes, it left a sizable loophole — e-commerce.

“While acknowledging their limitations, our findings raise concerns about loopholes created by the absence of explicit regulations on e-commerce sales in retailer licensing programmes that should be addressed. Additionally, the pervasiveness of e-commerce websites in the search results we studied suggests search engines may be a viable place to begin monitoring compliance,” the study concluded.

The study noted that there are several options available to address this problem, such as banning online sales of flavored tobacco products, requiring e-commerce retailers to be licensed in California and blocking retailers without licenses from selling to customers in the state.

“Regardless of how jurisdictions choose to address e-commerce, routine surveillance of online retailers is warranted. We are currently aware of no jurisdictions that routinely monitors e-commerce retailers for policy compliance,” the study said.