The majority of vape or e-cigarette products and related devices being sold in the United States are unauthorized by the Food and Drug Administration, a watchdog has found.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent estimate, there were more than 6,000 e-cigarette products available in the U.S. as of June 2024. Most of these have not been authorized for sale in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration, which reviews such products against health standards,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report publicly released on April 10.
The FDA has authorized only 39 tobacco- and menthol-flavored e-cigarette products as of December 2025, the report said. Recent FDA data show that the number has risen to 41 products.
“According to FDA officials, any other e-cigarette being sold and distributed is unauthorized and, therefore, illegal and could be subject to DOJ enforcement,” the GAO report said.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is empowered to take enforcement action to stop the sale, distribution, and manufacture of unauthorized vape products in the country. Between fiscal year 2022 and 2025, the department took on a total of 88 civil and criminal enforcement actions related to e-cigarettes, according to the report.
The department tackled violators by taking actions such as placing them on a list of unregulated or noncompliant vape delivery sellers and initiating statutory injunction proceedings.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaping is toxic to developing fetuses, puts the health of pregnant women in danger, can harm brain development until the age of around 25, exposes people to cancer-causing chemicals, and harms the lungs as tiny particles get inhaled deep into the organ.
In June 2024, the DOJ and the FDA set up an interagency e-cigarette task force that brought together several law enforcement partners to streamline federal efforts to stem the sale of unauthorized vape products, the GAO report said.
The task force has had success in disrupting such activities. In October 2024, the FDA, in collaboration with Customs and Border Protection, announced the seizure of roughly 3 million units of unauthorized e-cigarettes, valued at an estimated $76 million, all from China.
In September 2025, the DOJ said it worked with the FDA to seize more than 2.1 million illicit vaping products from six retailers and five distributors across multiple states.
Commenting on the GAO report, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who requested the report from the agency, raised concerns about thousands of kid-friendly, flavored vape products still on the market, according to an April 10 statement from the lawmaker’s office.
“The law is clear that e-cigarettes must obtain FDA authorization to enter the market, yet thousands of vapes are unlawfully and brazenly sold in stores and online by retailers nationwide. This GAO report helps shed light on FDA and DOJ’s failure to protect children from a lifetime of nicotine addiction,” Durbin said.
“FDA and DOJ must use their enforcement tools instead of cowering to the tobacco industry. The health of our kids depends on it.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ and the FDA for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
In an October 2024 report, the CDC said that e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco products among the youth population, with 5.9 percent of middle and high school students using these vaping devices and 1.8 percent of them using nicotine pouches.
The CDC warned that most tobacco use, including vaping, is established during adolescence. The agency blamed tobacco product use among youth on several factors, including ads targeting this demographic, social influences, and the availability of flavored products.
China’s Role
An Aug. 18 commentary by Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute, and published by The Epoch Times, highlighted China’s role in the unauthorized e-cigarettes being sold across the United States.In 2025, China shipped $3.6 billion worth of vapes into America, Thayer wrote, citing Reuters data. However, Customs and Border Protection only recorded $333 million worth of vapes coming into the country, which is a “staggering” 90 percent discrepancy in shipments, he said.
Thayer blamed the situation on the lack of enforcement at the border under the previous administration. Most shipments of vapes from China were intentionally mislabeled as toys, shoes, or battery chargers, he noted.
In November 2025, a group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced the Ensuring the Necessary Destruction of Illicit Chinese Tobacco (END) Act to crack down on illegal vape imports in the country, according to a Nov. 7 statement from the office of Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas).
The END Act authorizes the health secretary to destroy adulterated, counterfeit, or misbranded tobacco products that are imported into the United States.
“The vaping epidemic that has plagued American youth is made all the more concerning by China’s outsized role in flooding U.S. markets with counterfeit tobacco products,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.
“By giving the FDA destruction authority over these imports, this legislation would turn off the spigot of illicit e-cigarettes and vapes flowing from China and address the public health crisis sweeping across our nation.”
Progress on the bill has been slow. After being referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in November, the bill has not progressed in the chamber.
