46
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
JULY/AUGUST 2014
New E-Vapor Game in Play
E-Liquid Manufacturing Standards
Association (AEMSA), which has
brought together liquid manufacturers
who are adhering to standards long
before regulations come out, views
the proposed regulations as a strong
opportunity “for this industry to put
its big boy pants on and become the
power of us,” he states.
Williams actually views the deeming
regulations, as they are initially written,
as “horrible, but having gone through
this regulatory process in [other facets
of ] my career, I know that the proposed
rule and the final rule are dramatically
different. The [proposed regulations]
represent the first day; for years we
had a cloud overhead, we knew it
was coming. Now the chess board is
in front of us, we see the pieces…the
question is, how are we going to play
the game?”
Wells Fargo tobacco analyst Bonnie
Herzog believes that the FDA
deeming e-cig regulations are “not
as bad as feared,” especially from
the retail perspective. She notes that
“bottom line, e-cig/e-vapor regulations
will ultimately increase the barriers to
entry. For now, the regulations don’t
seem onerous for retailers, which is
positive.”
Meanwhile from the legal realm,
Bryan Haynes, a partner in tobacco
practice at Troutman Sanders law firm,
doesn’t think that “the proposal is as
industry-friendly as reported in the
media, but it’s also not necessarily as
bad as what others are saying more
recently.”
Haynes had previously considered
whether FDA was going to
metaphorically regulate the industry
with a scalpel or a sledgehammer, but
now that the regulations are out,his take
“Bottom line, e-cig/
e-vapor regulations
will ultimately
increase the barriers
to entry. For now,
the regulations don’t
seem onerous for
retailers, which is
positive.”
