Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 21 attorneys general, called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to abandon draft guidance that would ease approvals for flavored e-cigarette products, widely understood to disproportionately worsen youth addiction.  

Federal law requires that all e-cigarette products receive authorization from the FDA before they can be legally marketed or sold in the United States. The FDA has authorized only 45 e-cigarette products, and, until last week, had approved no flavors other than tobacco and menthol. However, just six days before today’s deadline to submit comments on the approval process, the FDA approved two fruit-flavored products.

“E-cigarettes, which are highly addictive and pose significant health risks, have flooded the market nationwide and must be subject to strict regulation,” Raoul said. “Youth in Illinois and across the nation are particularly susceptible to e-cigarette use, especially flavored products, which can lead to addiction to nicotine products. I am urging the FDA to strengthen its guidance and enforcement, and I am committed to protecting our communities from the harms of e-cigarettes.”

In March, the FDA released draft guidance which runs contrary to years’ worth of evidence and would ease the path to approval for certain flavored products. The guidance claims, contrary to the FDA’s own science, that certain flavors such as coffee, tea, spices, menthol and mint are “lower risk” flavors for youth addiction. In fact, extensive research shows that flavored products of all kinds are favored by youth over unflavored tobacco.  

Despite the FDA’s prior limited authorization, hundreds of thousands of e-cigarette varieties in multitudes of flavors are currently available for purchase, in flagrant violation of state and federal laws. In addition to the draft guidance, the FDA recently issued a press release announcing it would not prioritize enforcement against certain categories of vapes and nicotine pouches marketed without the necessary FDA authorization.

In their comment letter, Raoul and the attorneys general urge the FDA to reconsider the draft guidance and to continue careful scrutiny of all flavors to protect public health. They note that an estimated 1.63 million middle and high school students reported using e-cigarettes in 2024 and that flavored e-cigarettes are now the most widely used tobacco product among youth. The coalition warns that the FDA’s guidance would also create a loophole that the tobacco industry will find ways to exploit.

Today’s letter is part of Attorney General Raoul’s ongoing, multifaceted efforts to combat the dramatic increase in e-cigarette use, particularly among youth. In April, Raoul joined a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in urging major credit card companies and payment processors, including American Express, Capital One, Citi Group, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Stripe, Sezzle and Block (operator of Square, Cash App and Afterpay) to take stronger action to prevent their payment networks from being used to facilitate sales of illegal vaping products. Raoul also joined a bipartisan coalition in November 2025 in issuing a letter to Shopify Inc., urging the company to take stronger action against merchants that use its services to sell illegal tobacco products, particularly e-cigarettes.  

Raoul’s legal efforts include filing a lawsuit in January 2025 against the entities responsible for the distribution of the popular flavored disposable vape brand, Posh. In 2023, Raoul announced a $462 million multistate settlement with Juul Labs Inc. (Juul), one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of e-cigarettes. In 2022, Raoul co-led a bipartisan coalition calling on the FDA to reject marketing authorization for all non-tobacco nicotine products. In 2020, Raoul entered into a consent decree with Juice Man LLC that effectively prohibits Juice Man from operating in the state of Illinois.

Raoul has also sought changes to state law. In 2021, the Illinois Legislature passed Raoul’s legislation that prohibits companies from marketing e-cigarettes to minors and the sale of unauthorized e-cigarettes.

Additionally, Raoul has urged the FDA to ban flavored tobacco products and to strengthen e-cigarette guidance by prioritizing enforcement actions against flavored e-cigarettes.

Attorney General Raoul was joined in sending the letter by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.