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The FDA has now announced its proposal for total control of electronic cigarette regulation. Among other things, it claims to have avoided bans on flavor variety, internet sales, and advertising. Perhaps that is exactly the case and we’ll be able to enjoy a litany of flavors, the flexibility of online purchasing, and e-cig companies will be able to out-market tobacco cigarettes.

But this is language we’ve heard before when the FDA didn’t ban internet sales for tobacco cigarettes. To this day, the FDA will say that internet sales of tobacco cigarettes are entirely legal. This statement, however, comes with a fairly large asterisk. Though officially legal, the requirements the FDA has placed on internet sales make them effectively prohibited.

In order for a company to sell cigarettes online, it must adhere to three rules set out in the 2010 Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act.

Companies must extensively document all sales and show that all state, federal, and local taxes — often for both the origin and the destination — have been paid.

They cannot use the U.S. postal service in any way, shape, or form to deliver the products.

They must extensively verify the age of the purchaser both when the purchase is made online and upon delivery of the product to ensure minors aren’t making the purchase or receiving the goods.

These are all fairly problematic. State taxes on cigarettes is often a few bucks a pack. Having to pay taxes for both where the cigarettes come from and where they go is likely to kill any cost advantage online sales might have. Inability to use the U.S. postal service cuts out a major distribution line for companies (particularly small ones). Finally, the nail in the coffin is the requirement that age verification occur at both purchase and delivery — which is far more complicated than it might sound.

All this means that the FDA can continue to claim that it hasn’t banned sales online — which is likely to require more work to justify — but the effect is that tobacco cigarette sales are basically impossible to do online. Meanwhile, these restrictions are all reasonable in the effort to stop tobacco trafficking. Even ordering US-produced cigarettes from foreign countries is a violation of US tax law.

This means that the FDA is not above spinning an effective ban as something else. For electronic cigarettes, requiring new product applications, elaborately constructed age verification systems, and overlapping taxes is just as good and — again — requires a lot less justification to the courts.

This isn’t the only area where this happens. Because pig farms often produce a lingering stench for miles, many cities and towns have ordinances regulating the size of pig crates within their district. Though it is a small detail, the ordinance often requires just enough extra work and expense by potential pig farms to send them somewhere else. It also often means that the locals are willing to enact more policy against these farms if they do set up shop in the area. Ban? No. Effectively so? Yes.

So while the official story may be that flavors, internet sales, and advertising bans are not part of the FDA’s new proposal to regulate electronic cigarettes, that may be exactly what they’re doing. Experts far more understanding of policy than us will likely step in soon to explain if this is, indeed, the case.