Teen vapers are using eBay to dodge age restrictions

As government regulators move to crack down on youth vaping, eBay and other online marketplaces are still awash with bootleg Juul pods. Those third-party sales violate most platform rules and are the target of significant anti-counterfeiting efforts by Juul itself. But none of it has managed to block the sales entirely, suggesting that regulators may face an uphill battle as they try to curb the teen vaping epidemic.

Vaping forums like the /r/Juul subreddit are littered with posts from users who purchased what they believed to be legitimate products from eBay and Alibaba. Several users note that they’re underage and unable to purchase authentic Juul products in physical stores or on the Juul website. It’s common knowledge that many of the pods sold online are fake and could contain harmful ingredients, but users continue to purchase them and recommend eBay as a source for underage users.

Public health experts have worried about underage vaping for years, but last fall, the Surgeon General declared it an epidemic after vaping rates spiked dramatically between 2017 and 2018. Congress and regulators are also fed up with teen vaping and have begun to ramp up efforts to curb youth tobacco sales, including Food and Drug Administration restrictions on flavored products and a bill co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that would bump the federal purchasing age to 21.

“Every extra day it takes to put this important legislation into effect is an opportunity for thousands more kids to access a tobacco product that can damage their developing brains,” McConnell said in a statement.

But despite the growing restrictions on brick-and-mortar sales, when minors go online, they can buy Juul pods or cigarettes, and they face almost none of the same restrictions. While technically a violation of platform policies, the listings are widespread and give underage vapers an easy way to vape without the hassle of in-person purchases.

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The Verge searched for tobacco-related listings on eBay and Alibaba and found dozens of listings for Juul devices, pods, packages of cigarettes, and vape juice after a straightforward search. In one instance, a full carton of Marlboros was available for sale. Consumers aren’t required to verify their ages when they purchase tobacco and nicotine items on eBay. It’s against the platform’s policies to sell them, but it’s unclear how these policies are being enforced. The number of available listings suggests that current enforcement methods aren’t working.

After being notified by The Verge, eBay removed many of the listings.

“Juul items are not allowed to be sold on eBay,” the platform said in a statement. “Over the past year, we have blocked or removed hundreds of thousands of listings for e-cigarettes.”

An eBay representative told The Verge that the company uses a variety of detection tools to find and delete listings that violate their policies. Users can also report listings, but it’s doubtful that anyone looking to purchase these tobacco products would also be interested in taking them down. Even if listings are removed quickly, new ones pop up just as fast. The Verge was able to make a purchase for what was described as a package of mango-flavored Juul pods on eBay for around $15.

This isn’t the first time eBay has struggled with vape enforcement. In April 2018, the FDA notified eBay that Juul products were being sold on its platform. Once eBay was made aware of the listings, they were removed, and the FDA said that it was “thankful for eBay’s swift action to remove the listings and voluntarily implement new measures to prevent new listings from being posted to the web retailer’s site.”

Juul actively scans marketplaces like eBay and Amazon for its products, reporting more than 22,000 listings for removal in 2018. “In addition to monitoring retail locations, we continue enforcement efforts against listings that sell JUUL products across online marketplaces in violation of their terms-of-service,” a Juul spokesperson said in a statement. “Our Brand Protection Online Enforcement team monitors and enforces over 300 online marketplaces in over 20 languages globally for counterfeit products, policy violations, and intellectual property infringements.”

Still, those efforts don’t seem to be successful in keeping pods out of marketplaces. Searching for “juul” or “juul pods” on eBay and Alibaba will still bring up dozens of listings, many for knock-off pods that could contain hazardous chemicals. Enforcement efforts seem to be more effective on Amazon where a search only turned up accessories like skins and cases for devices.

Still, those enforcement failures over the tobacco and vape industry have driven lawmakers from both parties to push for stronger regulation of products like Juul. This includes the bills aimed at limiting vape liquid flavors and bumping the purchasing age to 21. Regardless, the bill may not be enough to stop teens from getting their hands on Juuls, vapes, or even cigarettes over the internet.

During a podcast with Axios last month, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that high school seniors over the age of 18 will often purchase Juul products and sell them to their classmates at school. “I think if you raise the age to 21, it makes that kind of secondary market more difficult,” Gottlieb said. “Now, those sales to the 18 year olds will be illegal.”

It’s a start, yet with these products still widely available through online markets, raising the smoking age could have little to no effect.