By Hank Russell
A vape manufacturer that operated in Farmingdale before it closed down has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit recently filed by Attorney General Letitia James. The suit alleged that the company was marketing its products to minors.
Price Point Inc. was named as one of 13 companies being sued by the Attorney General’s office. Also named as defendants were Hamza Jalili, the company’s CEO, director, president and shareholder; director/vice president/secretary Weis Khwaja; and Mohammad Jalili, another shareholder.
These companies, James said, are responsible for illegally distributing, marketing, and selling flavored disposable vapes – including popular brands such as Puff Bar, Elf Bar, Geek Bar, Breeze, MYLE, and more – which have become extraordinarily popular among minors. Some of the products Price Point sold included the Air Bar Nex Unicorn; the Geek Bar Pulse OMG Blow Up and White Gummy Ice; the Fifty Bar V2 Strawberry Cereal Donut Milk; RAZ TN 9000 Strawberry Shortcake and EB BC 5000 Rainbow Clouds.
According to the lawsuit, “Price Point routinely ignored its shipping, packing, and recordkeeping obligations,” in that the company did not identify on its package that it contained e-cigarettes and sent its products through the mail without requiring age verification. Also, when the company shut down on December 31, 2024, they offered “a blanket 10% discount” on all orders before the end of the year. “None of the discounts Price Point offered and allowed its customers to redeem throughout the Relevant Time Period were legal under New York law,” the lawsuit stated.
An Office of the Attorney General (OAG) investigation found that these companies market highly addictive, candy- and fruit-flavored nicotine products to underage consumers, mislead customers about the safety and legality of their products, illegally ship products to New York, and violate health regulations designed to curb youth vaping.
James alleged that Price Point and the other companies violated federal and state laws. None of the companies’ products were approved by the Food and Drug Administration and they offered their products online, althoigh New York raised the age to buy a vape to 21 in 2020. The online sales also violated the federal Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, which prohibits online sales of vaping products to consumers and unlicensed retailers.
In fact, the lawsuit stated, Khwaja received a warning letter from the FDA about selling fruit- and candy-flavored vapes online. “The warning letter advised Price Point that it was their responsibility to ensure that its Flavored E-Cigarettes ‘and all related labeling and/or advertising on . . . [its] website (including e-commerce, social networking, or search engine websites), in any other media in which you advertise, and in any retail establishments comply with each applicable provision of the FD&C Act and FDA’s implementing regulations.’”
In 2020, Price Point told the FDA it was selling to international customers, but the company “continued selling flavored e-cigarettes to New Yorkers.”
In addition, according to the OAG, Price Point used social media in order to lure younger consumers, including “a series of videos that are accessible without age verification on YouTube” promoting their products.”
“The vaping industry is taking a page out of Big Tobacco’s playbook: they’re making nicotine seem cool, getting kids hooked, and creating a massive public health crisis in the process,” James said. “For too long, these companies have disregarded our laws in order to profit off of our young people, but we will not risk the health and safety of our kids. Today, we are taking critical steps toward holding these companies accountable for the harm they have caused New Yorkers.”