Shopify bans all e-cigarette sales after pressure from Raoul-led attorney general coalition

CHICAGO – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 25 attorneys general and the city of New York, welcomed Shopify’s decision to ban the sale of all vaping products, including e-cigarettes, through its e-commerce platform. The decision is a direct response to the coalition’s November 2025 call for stronger safeguards.

“I am pleased that Shopify was responsive to our efforts in banning the sale of all vaping products, which are highly addictive and pose significant health risks, particularly to youth,” Raoul said. “I am committed to protecting our communities from the harms of e-cigarettes, including the widespread sale of unauthorized products, and will continue to collaborate with other state attorneys general on a bipartisan basis to hold companies accountable that continue to fuel the youth vaping epidemic.”

Due to Shopify’s prohibition on the use of its services for unlawful activities, the Canadian-based e-commerce platform previously banned certain e-cigarette sellers brought to the company’s attention in April 2025.

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Every new tobacco product, including e-cigarettes, must receive an order from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizing its marketing and sale in the United States. To date, the FDA has authorized 45 specific e-cigarette products, all of which are for adult smokers only. Federal law prohibits the receipt or delivery through interstate commerce of any adulterated or unapproved tobacco product.

At the local level, states like Illinois, as well as local governments within the coalition states, have passed laws regulating the sale of e-cigarettes. For example, the Preventing Youth Vaping Act, which was initiated by Raoul, makes it unlawful to sell e-cigarettes in Illinois that lack FDA authorization.

The outreach to Shopify is the latest action in Attorney General Raoul’s ongoing work to combat the flow of unlawfully flavored vape products into Illinois. In January 2025, Raoul filed a lawsuit against the entities responsible for the distribution of the popular flavored disposable vape brand, Posh. Raoul’s suit brings claims under the Preventing Youth Vaping Act, seeking to bar these entities from selling adulterated e-cigarettes in Illinois and marketing their products to youth.

In April, Raoul joined a bipartisan coalition urging major credit card companies and payment processors to take stronger action to prevent their payment networks from being used to facilitate sales of illegal vaping products. Then in May, Raoul and a bipartisan coalition called upon 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.

Joining Raoul in sending the letter to Shopify were the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, the city of New York and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

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