September 1 news, according to foreign reports, the US Federal Trade Commission's second report on e-cigarette sales and advertising shows that sales of flavored disposable e-cigarettes and menthol e-cigarette cartridges increased significantly in 2020.

The period coincided with a federal ban on closed-system flavored pods.

Regulators say closed systems are popular with young people, so the FTC report suggests that youth e-cigarette use has shifted to single-use flavored products, rather than declining.

The report also found that the distribution of free and discounted e-cigarettes is at an all-time high.

Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: "This report shows that teens are still at risk of buying flavored or discounted e-cigarettes. E-cigarette marketers have proven proficient at circumventing FDA regulation and attracting young people to addictive products.

The FTC has reported tobacco sales annually since 1967, and has been reporting smokeless tobacco sales since 1987. Last year, the agency expanded its research into the industry and released its first report on e-cigarettes.

This year's e-cigarette report covers sales and advertising data for 2019 and 2020, during which time the FDA issued an enforcement policy banning the sale of flavored e-cigarette cartridges other than menthol.

Overall, the report found that total e-cigarette sales increased from $304.2 million in 2015 to $2.046 billion in 2018, to $2.703 billion in 2019, but then declined to $2.24 billion in 2020. The FTC report noted that the 2020 decline may not be representative of the market given the significant changes in the industry. Key findings in the report include:

Significant shift to flavored single-use e-cigarettes: Publicly available information indicates that sales of single-use e-cigarettes (not subject to FDA 2020 policy) have increased substantially, with other flavored single-use products accounting for 77.6% of all single-use e-cigarette sales.

In December 2020, FTC data did not show a one-time increase in sales. However, the FTC data may not represent an accurate picture of the disposable e-cigarette market. Of the five companies that submitted data for 2019-20, only two continued to sell single-use e-cigarettes in 2020, and those did offer a more limited offering. To improve the representativeness of its industry sales data for future FTC reports, the FTC recently sent orders to four other vaping companies.

Menthol pod sales surge: Likewise, the report found that sales of the remaining non-FDA-banned flavored pods, menthol, increased significantly, accounting for 63.5% of all pod sales in 2020.

E-Cigarette Discounts Hit an All-Time High: The data also shows that e-cigarette price discounts hit a record $182.3 million in 2019, and while they declined slightly in 2020, such discounts remain the largest category of e-cigarette ad spend. Cigarette manufacturer.

Nearly Free E-Cigarette Samples Doubled: Data collected in 2019-20 shows spending on sampling and distribution of free and deeply discounted e-cigarettes more than doubled in just two years, making it the second-largest spending category 2020 This happened in 2016 because, after the FDA banned tobacco product sampling in 2016 to limit teen exposure, some companies began offering e-cigarettes for $1 (or even less), in an apparent attempt to circumvent the ban.

"This report shows that a partial ban on certain types of flavorings in some types of e-cigarettes is unlikely to be successful in reducing youth nicotine addiction through e-cigarette use," the FTC wrote in a statement.

The committee voted 5-0 to approve the FTC’s 2019-20 vaping report and related data sheets.