The Big Take
The $22 Billion Vape Industry Is About to Get Even Messier
Vapor startups are already at loggerheads with cigarette makers and the FDA. Trump’s return promises to complicate the market even further.
The global battle against unauthorized vapes is already a messy one, pitting regulators, Big Tobacco and the startups that ship billions of devices across the world against one another. Donald Trump’s return to the White House promises to make things even more complicated.
Worth an estimated $22 billion worldwide, the vaping industry is lucrative and at times legally hazy. In recent years, the US Food and Drug Administration has not authorized fruit-, candy- or mint-flavored vapes — also known as e-cigarettes — saying that they encourage teenagers to take up the habit.