California Department of Public Heath Investigators assisted with this investigation
“CSLEA would like to acknowledge the investigative work done in this case by its members at CDPH including Investigators Mauldin, Stys, Lambert, Bradley, Odom, Aquauye, Araiza, Spears, and Supervising Investigators Simpson and Gomez. This civil action appears to be one of the first enforcement actions to shut down a tobacco manufacturer and seller for violating California’s SB 793.”
-CSLEA President Alan Barcelona
LIVERMORE– On October 11, 2023, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office obtained a preliminary injunction against a Livermore-based flavored tobacco company, Apollo Future Technology, which does business as Apollo E-cigs. The preliminary injunction extends and expands on the temporary restraining order issued September 1, 2023, stopping Apollo’s illegal flavored tobacco and synthetic cannabis operation for as long as the District Attorney’s lawsuit is underway.
“We are pleased that the Superior Court recognized the gravity of this situation, in particular the danger that Apollo E-Cigs’ unlawful actions pose to the children of Alameda County and the State of California,” said District Attorney Pamela Price. “The Court has now confirmed the merit of our lawsuit, shutting down a major bad actor that we believe may have been manufacturing and selling as many as tens of thousands of banned flavored vapes each month.”
The District Attorney’s civil prosecution represents one of the first enforcement actions to shut down a tobacco manufacturer and seller for violating SB 793, California’s ban on the retail sale of flavored tobacco products. The Superior Court’s preliminary injunction bars Apollo E-Cigs from selling flavored tobacco products and tobacco flavor enhancers online, explicitly rejecting Apollo’s argument that California’s flavored tobacco ban only applies to in-person sales at retail locations. The Court’s written opinion states in barring Apollo E-Cigs from selling flavored tobacco products online, “[n]othing in these [laws] requires the retailer and the consumer to be dealing with each other face-to-face at the retailer’s physical retail premises.”
The District Attorney’s civil prosecution is the result of a multi-agency investigation conducted by the:
- Alameda County District Attorney’s Office,
- Livermore Police Department,
- California Department of Public Health,
- and California’s Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
As the allegations set forth in the District Attorney’s public court filings state, defendants used the Livermore warehouse as their base of operations to sell banned flavored tobacco products — predominantly “vapes” and “vape juice” — to individuals under the age of 21. The District Attorney’s lawsuit also alleges that Apollo sold products through its websites without verifying the purchasers’ ages as required by law, illegally shipped its flavored tobacco products through the U.S. Postal Service without complying with California’s delivery requirements and manufactured and sold thousands of synthetic cannabis products in packaging that falsely claimed the products were legal, natural industrial hemp products containing less than 0.3% THC.
“I want to once again thank the City of Livermore and our State partners for their assistance in this investigation,” said District Attorney Price. “We are proud that the Court agreed with our arguments and has now issued a significant new precedent that will empower our partner agencies to shut down online retailers of banned flavored tobacco products statewide. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office stands ready to provide its expertise to our partner agencies across California in their own actions to protect our children from these dangerous, addictive products.”
