State Senate Amends & Approves Statewide Vape Product Directory

House Bill 1425 passed the House in June, introduces significant new regulations for electronic cigarettes containing nicotine and for tobacco retailers across the state. The legislation directs the attorney general to establish and maintain a vapor product directory, a centralized list determining which nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes may be legally sold.

Under the bill, manufacturers must certify that each electronic cigarette meets at least one of three criteria to be included in the directory. A product must either have received a marketing granted order from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); have been marketed in the United States on or before August 8, 2016, with a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) submitted to the FDA by September 9, 2020, and accepted for review or still pending; or have had its PMTA denied and be subject to an active legal challenge.

Once the directory becomes effective, electronic cigarettes containing nicotine that are not listed may no longer be sold after a 120-day compliance period. Manufacturers have 120 days from the bill’s effective date or from the date the attorney general makes the directory available—whichever occurs later—to ensure their products are listed. Retailers are also granted a 120-day sell-through period from the date the directory is first published to remove noncompliant products from their shelves.

HB 1425 further requires manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers to obtain a surety bond as a condition of doing business, strengthening enforcement and accountability across the supply chain.

On December 8, the bill was amended in the Senate Committee on Appropriations to revise the presumed cost of doing business for cigarette retailers. Cost of the retailer shall mean the cost of cigarettes to the retailer plus the cost of doing business by the retailer in excess of the basic cost of cigarettes.

Under the amendment, the rate will increase from 7.0% to 8.5% effective March 1, 2026 (or 60 days after the effective date, whichever is later), and rise again to 9.5% one year after the effective date. The amendment also mandates that licensed retailers purchase tobacco products and nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes exclusively from licensed wholesalers.

The amended version of HB 1425 passed the Senate floor with a 42-4 vote and was returned to the House on December 9, 2025, for further consideration.