Attorney General Kris Mayes Calls on Shopify to Crack Down on Vape Sales

PHOENIX – Attorney General Kris Mayes today joined a bipartisan coalition of 25 attorneys general and the City of New York in sending a letter to Shopify Inc. (Shopify), urging the company to take stronger action against merchants that use its services to sell illegal tobacco products, particularly e-cigarettes or vapes.

"Shopify is currently hosting a countless number of merchants illegally selling nicotine vapes or e-cigarettes. It is blatant law-breaking and a danger to the young people and teens who should not have access to these harmfully addictive tobacco products," said Attorney General Mayes. "I'm proud to be part of a coalition of both Democratic and Republican states asking Shopify to work with us to come into compliance with the law." 

Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify describes itself as “a commerce platform that helps you sell online and in person” and explains that “[e]ntrepreneurs, retailers, and global brands use Shopify to make sales, run stores, and grow their businesses.” Shopify’s policies already prohibit merchants from using its services for unlawful activities, and Shopify has previously terminated e-cigarette or vape sellers that were brought to the company’s attention by the California Attorney General’s Office on April 15, 2025.

However, in today’s letter, the coalition highlights that a more comprehensive solution is necessary because merchants continue to use Shopify’s services to sell illegal e-cigarettes or vapes. Accordingly, the coalition requests a meeting with Shopify to collaborate and exchange ideas on what a comprehensive solution could entail.

In today’s letter, the bipartisan coalition: 

• Identifies 29 illegal e-cigarette or vape websites that are currently hosted on Shopify’s platform. California recently placed these websites on notice for operating in violation of federal and state laws. This list is not exhaustive.
• Encloses an exhibit identifying over 200 additional websites known to sell illegal tobacco products. This list is not exhaustive.
• Writes that it would undertake some of the effort needed to further identify illegal sellers to Shopify, if Shopify and the coalition entered into a cooperative agreement.

E-cigarettes are highly addictive and pose significant health risks, particularly to youth and are therefore subject to strict regulation. States in the coalition, as well as local governments within the states, have passed laws to mitigate the sale of e-cigarettes. In Arizona, we recently raised the tobacco sales age to 21, in part to curb youth access to nicotine products like e-cigarettes or vapes. 

At the federal level, every new tobacco product, such as an e-cigarette or vape, must receive an order from the Food and Drug Administration authorizing its marketing and sale in the United States. To date, the FDA has approved only 39 e-cigarette products, none in any flavor other than tobacco and menthol. E-cigarettes that have not received approval from the FDA, which constitute essentially all e-cigarettes offered by online sellers, are deemed “adulterated.” Federal law prohibits the receipt or delivery in interstate commerce of any adulterated tobacco product, and delivery or proffered delivery of adulterated tobacco products is accordingly unlawful under United States law.

Attorney General Mayes has also filed actions against individual e-cigarette or vape sellers, as part of her crack down on vape stores in Arizona selling tobacco products to youth. She's pursuing civil complaints against two of the businesses that most persistently and recklessly sell tobacco nicotine products to underage Arizonans. The complaints detail how specific shops that sell vapes in Arizona consistently either refuse to check identification, or when faced with the knowledge that a patron is under the legal age of sale, sells the tobacco or nicotine product anyway. 

Joining Attorney General Mayes in sending today’s letter to Shopify, which is co-led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the City of New York, are the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 

A copy of the bipartisan letter is here.