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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced Thursday that her office has secured a $51 million settlement with an e-cigarette retailer and its co-owners she said sold vaping products to minors.
These products included electronic nicotine devices, e-liquids, and nicotine pods.
The settlement also ordered the retailer, Eonsmoke, to no longer sell, distribute, market, or advertise any tobacco product to consumers in Massachusetts.
Attorney General Healey accused Eonsmoke of not verifying the age of young people when selling its products online, and did not make sure shipments of the products were received by a person 21 years old or older.
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“Eonsmoke coordinated a campaign that intentionally targeted young people and sold dangerous and addictive vaping products directly to minors through their website,” Healey said in a statement. “We were the first to take action against this company and its owners, and today we are holding them accountable and permanently stopping them from conducting these illegal practices in our state.”
Eonsmoke CEO Michael Tolmach, who was also a defendant in the lawsuit, told the Boston Globe in 2019 that the company was cooperating with Healey's office because he was also concerned about youth vaping.
"[We] have taken some of the most aggressive actions of anyone in the industry to combat youth usage including ceasing sales to the state on our website, scrubbing our social media channels, and enacting strict age verification online," Tolmach told the Globe.
In November of 2019, Massachusetts banned the sale of flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and e-liquids, becoming the first state in the country to do so.
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