Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, will stop selling fruit- and dessert-flavored vaping products and require all tobacco purchasers to be 21 or older after scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration over illegal sales to children.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based company, which has more than 5,000 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, failed about 17% of government checks on its compliance with a law banning the sale of tobacco products to children under 18, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned in an April letter. He ordered the retailer to submit a written plan within 30 days detailing measures to curb the violation and how long they would take to implement.
“Violating the law preventing sales of tobacco products to minors, and paying associated fines and penalties, should not simply be viewed as a cost of doing business,” Gottlieb added. “The stakes are too high for our young people and our country’s decades-long fight to reduce the morbidity and mortality that accompanies tobacco product use.”
Decades of research have linked tobacco products to cancer, with a 2014 Surgeon General’s report showing that 5.6 million Americans under 18 would die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is fighting to raise the minimum age for purchases to 21, which it believes will help curb sales to youth and young adults who are prone to experimenting with tobacco and heavily targeted by industry advertisements.
[Related: Crackdown: FDA to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, restrict flavored e-cigarette sales]
Twelve states including Delaware, Virginia, and Maine have enacted such laws so far.
While Walmart cited statistics from both a nine-year period and a one-year span that showed compliance rates above 90%, which it views as a more accurate portrayal of its record, the chain promised to do better.
“We unequivocally acknowledge that even a single sale of a tobacco product to a minor is one too many, and we take seriously our responsibilities in this regard,” John Scudder, Walmart’s chief U.S. ethics and compliance officer, told the regulator in a May 8 letter.
The retailer will end tobacco sales to people between 18 and 21 years on July 1, and is already removing flavored e-cigarette systems from its stores that government research indicates minors prefer. Additionally, it will use virtual reality to improve its cashier training and enhance its analysis of data to more quickly identify potential risks and trends, Scudder said.
