Internet little cigar and cigarillo vendors: Surveillance of sales and marketing practices via website content analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Cigar sales have nearly doubled as cigarette sales have dropped, and large cigars have been replaced by little cigars and cigarillos (LCCs). Many LCCs are flavored, are perceived as less harmful than cigarettes, and have become increasingly available from e-commerce sources. We conducted surveillance of the online retail environment in 2013 and 2014 for LCCs in order to describe characteristics of Internet tobacco vendors selling LCCs and their sales and marketing practices, youth access practices, and their practices in relation to cigarette and other tobacco product sales. METHODS: In 2013, we identified and manually screened 32,446 websites, yielding 500 unique Internet LCC vendors. In 2014, we identified 511 vendors selling LCCs from a list of 31,239 manually screened websites. We then selected 249 in 2013 and 263 in 2014 for content analysis focusing on six domains including demographics, youth access, payment and delivery, products for sale, promotions and claims, and prices. RESULTS: Just over half of vendors in both years were located solely in the U.S. with 70.1% of those selling flavored LCCs in 2013 and 76.1% in 2014. Nearly half only used proven ineffective age verification strategies and another 10% made no attempts to verify age at all. Most vendors accepted credit cards and advertised using the United States Postal Service. Half of vendors featured a variety of health warnings and most featured promotions. CONCLUSIONS: Federal bans on flavored cigarettes and restrictions on age verification, payment, and shipping for Internet tobacco sales should be extended to include LCCs.

What is included with your online e-cigarette order? An analysis of e-cigarette shipping, product and packaging features.

BACKGROUND: The electronic cigarette industry is growing, with youth using e-cigarettes at higher rates than they are using cigarettes, and retail and online sales projected to reach $10 billion in 2017. Minimal regulation of the production and marketing of e-cigarettes exists to date, which has allowed companies to promote unsupported claims. We assessed the shipping, product features and packaging of a wide variety of e-cigarettes purchased online by adults and youth. METHODS: The most popular internet e-cigarette vendors were identified from a larger study of internet tobacco vendors. Between August 2013 and June 2014, adults made 56 purchase attempts from online vendors, and youth made 98 attempts. Packages received were assessed for exterior and internal packaging features, including product information, health warnings and additional materials. RESULTS: We analysed a total of 125 orders featuring 86 unique brands of e-cigarettes. The contents were rarely indicated on package exteriors. Product information came with just 60% of orders and just 38.4% included an instruction manual. Only 44.6% of products included a health warning, and some had unsupported claims, such as lack of secondhand smoke exposure. Additionally, some products were leaking e-liquid and battery fluid on arrival. CONCLUSIONS: A large variety of e-cigarette products are manufactured and marketed to consumers. Many products do not include instructions for use, and unsupported claims are being presented to consumers. Effective federal regulation of the manufacturing, packaging, product information and health claims surrounding e-cigarettes is necessary to ensure consumers are presented with accurate e-cigarette use information.