How the E-Cigaratte Laws by FDA Will Shape the Vaping Industry?

For vapers, it might be worth considering to stock up your favorite e-cigarette juice flavors. Apparently, these precious juices may not be available in the market much longer because of new FDA regulations about e-cigarettes.

Even though the vaping industry has been prepared for what might happen once the new FDA regarding the use of e-cigarettes would be enforced, there's no denying that most of these are worried about how this would affect their business. For one, they would be required to register their products through a costly, time-consuming process known as "Premarket Tobacco Application." This would definitely cost millions of dollars and would force some companies to go out of business.

Good or bad, there's no denying that the vaping industry would look very different a few years from now, here's what probably will happen once these rules are implemented.

1. Selection Would be Limited

Since PMTAs would be very expensive to file, there's a possibility that a lot of small e-cig companies today would have no choice but to leave the business, especially if they won't be able to keep up with the manufacturing costs.

According to the FDA, only 750 PMTAs would be given each year, and companies only have 2 years to apply their existing products. If you would analyze this, this would only work for about 1500 PMTAs. Bear in mind, these are per product and not per company. There are more than 4,000 vape manufacturers in the US and each company produces dozens of nicotine levels and flavors.

For example, the Apollo E-cigs, one of the most popular e-cig manufacturers in the US make 12 fruity flavors, and they have five five different nicotine levels. Which only implies that, if Apollo would want to keep their business running, they would have to file 60 different PMTAs for these.

On a lighter note, FDA said that they would try to find ways on how to lessen its impact, such as allowing the manufacturers to file a single PMTA for different flavors. Though, it's still inevitable that the market would eventually shrink from thousands of products and flavors to fewer than a thousand in the following years. Manufacturers would have to keep on applying for new products in the future.

2. Increase in Prices of e-Cigs and Other Things Related to It

Although it's still a little bit early to assume how prices would be affected, there's a possibility that the companies who offer these products would bump up their prices even just a little bit. According to the FDA, the PMTA process would need 1,500 hours per product-- this would be every nicotine and flavor level of e-liquid.

Aside from that, there's no denying that the process might cost several hundreds of dollars per use. This is what Mitch Zeller, the director of the FDA's Tobacco Products, has revealed. Wherein, the cost of registering different flavors of e-liquid would definitely trickle down to the vapers.

This is one of the possibilities that should not be ignored, and can be compared with anything else. For example, if you get a pizza today and it only costs a couple of dollars, but the prices of cheese went up the following day, expect that your pizza would cost a couple of dollars more expensive.

On the brighter side, e-commerce vaping business like Smokazon has been capitalizing on the increased marketer price by offer discount and offers to vapers to make more from their business.

Unfortunately, if the cost of the e-cig business would increase, manufacturers have no choice but to increase the prices.

3. The Rise of the Black Market for E-Cigs

The Internet is a big place, where you can acquire anything you want. There are countries that don't have vaping regulations and that means they are allowed to offer e-cigarettes online. Once the new FDA rule is implemented, there's a huge possibility that a lot of vapers might consider making a switch from their favorite US product to non-US e-cigarette products.

Also, DIY juice makers might also be introduced in the market as a way to fill the gap that was left by the new regulations.

4. Custom Mods Will Go Extinct

For non-vapers, most of them believe that e-cigs are created equally and that it'll help them quit smoking. What they're not aware of is that there are a number of ways on how to get a vape on. Most are only familiar with the e-cigs being offered at gas stations.

These look like your typical cigarettes that are disposable. However, for vapers, they usually use a different kind of vape-- usually mods or pens. This type of e-cig is reusable and can even be customized. It allows the vapers to create an e-cig that meets their demands and expectations.

Under the new FDA regulations, companies would be mandated to prove that their products are safe-- that every part of the product is safe. FDA believes that it might be a little difficult for manufactures to meet the statutory standards, given that they should be as detailed as possible.

Likewise, this new regulation would also discourage e-cig manufacturers from trying, but only apply for closed-system models that can't be modified.