Former e-cigarette maker agrees to $50M settlement over marketing to minors

A former e-cigarette maker agreed to a more than $50 million settlement in Massachusetts over marketing its products to minors. 

The office of Attorney General Maura Healey announced the $51 million settlement with Eonsmoke and its co-owners, saying the company was not verifying the age of customers online from 2015 to 2018 and was marketing to minors using social media in violation of Massachusetts’ consumer protection law.

Co-owners Gregory Grishayev and Michael Tolmach will be paying $750,000 of the settlement. 

“Eonsmoke coordinated a campaign that intentionally targeted young people and sold dangerous and addictive vaping products directly to minors through their website,” Healey said in a statement. “We were the first to take action against this company and its owners, and today we are holding them accountable and permanently stopping them from conducting these illegal practices in our state.”

Eonsmoke dissolved in 2020 and is now permanently enjoined from selling or promoting tobacco products in Massachusetts. 

Grishayev and Tolmach will have to notify Healey’s office and get approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell tobacco products in the state in the future. 

The office filed the lawsuit against Eonsmoke in 2019 and added the co-owners in 2020. The settlement was filed Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court.