Vape, e-cigarette company Price Point agrees to end NYC sales
Price Point, a Farmingdale-based online distributor of nicotine-delivery devices like e-cigarettes and vapes, has agreed to stop selling its products to New York City customers. Credit: Getty Images/Oksana Lyskova
A Long Island-based online distributor of nicotine devices like e-cigarettes and vapes has agreed to stop selling to New York City customers, settling with the city to end a suit alleging that the company illegally sold flavored products popular with youths.
The company, Price Point Distributors Inc. of 500 Smith St. in Farmingdale, also agreed to be penalized $1,000 for each item sold if caught violating the settlement, dated May 15.
It was via Price Point's website pricepointny.com that the company allegedly sold flavored products favored by underage users of e-cigarettes and vapes, including "snow cone," "strawberry shortcake" and "Hawaii Punch," to retail stores and directly to consumers in the city, where it is altogether illegal.
Reached by phone Friday, one of Price Point's attorneys, Erik J. Dykema of Essex Fells, New Jersey, declined to comment.
A news release issued Friday by Mayor Eric Adams' office said the settlement will be "permanently closing the business operations" of Price Point, but the text of the settlement filed in court appears to cover only New York City sales. Adams' press office didn't immediately respond to a query seeking an explanation.
A notice dated Jan. 1 at the top of Price Point's website says that "due to a number of factors" the website would be shutting down Dec. 31. But the website appears to still be operational, offering products for sale, including flavored ones.
A New York City law that took effect in 2020 restricts the sale of traditional tobacco products to be unflavored, or tobacco, mint, menthol or wintergreen flavored — but e-cigarettes are allowed to be only tobacco flavored or unflavored. State law also prohibits flavored vapes.
The city's lawsuit, filed Nov. 7, accuses Price Point of breaking "nearly every" law — city, state and federal — regulating the sale of e-cigarettes. The suit, at U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, claims the company's sales of e-cigarettes in the city violated the federal Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act "by concealing their shipments of e-cigarettes into New York City from City officials," state public health law and the city's administrative code.
Price Point is also one of more than a dozen defendants in a separate federal lawsuit filed in February by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging illegal marketing to underage customers.
Vaping — use of a battery-powered device to heat a liquid that creates a nicotine aerosol mist to be inhaled — is addictive, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
As smoking of traditional tobacco has declined, the rate of e-cigarette use has risen, but has recently started to decline.
The Associated Press, citing a government survey, reported in September that fewer adolescents are vaping than at any time in the prior decade, with the teen vaping rate falling to below 6% in 2024, down from 7.7% the year before.
The survey found that more than 1.6 million students reported having vaped in the previous month. That's a third of the number in 2019, when underage vaping had peaked, AP said.
It had also fallen the prior year, Newsday reported in 2023.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
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