Shopify has ordered merchants worldwide to remove all vaping products from their online stores, turning a U.S. campaign against unauthorized sales into a global ban that also reaches lawful markets.
According to a June 24 notice confirmed by Shopify, the company “no longer supports the sale” of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). Merchants had until July 8 to remove the products or risk listing suspension or store termination. A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Reuters the policy applies globally.
The policy followed months of pressure from a bipartisan coalition of 25 attorneys general, co-led by California and the City of New York. In a June 23 statement, Bonta’s office called Shopify’s decision a response to the coalition’s demands. The group’s Nov. 24 letter to Shopify identified 29 websites hosted on the platform and sought a “comprehensive solution” aimed at illegal sellers.
Shopify’s answer goes much further. The company has not drawn a line between products lacking U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marketing authorization and products that may be legally sold elsewhere. It has not even exempted the small group of products the agency permits in the United States.
The FDA’s current authorized-products list contains 45 e-cigarettes, including products made by JUUL Labs, NJOY, R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, Logic, and Glas. The agency stresses that marketing authorization does not mean a product is safe or “FDA-approved.” But Shopify now bars those authorized products alongside every unauthorized one.
That distinction matters because Shopify says millions of businesses in about 175 countries use its platform. Many operate under laws that permit regulated adult vape sales. England, for example, banned single-use vapes on June 1, 2025, while allowing reusable products to remain on sale.
Bonta called the change a victory against illegal nicotine sales. For lawful retailers outside the United States, it is something else: a private global prohibition created to avoid the work of jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction compliance. Those businesses must now remove legal products or rebuild their stores somewhere else.
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