Morgan Fischer
Audio By Carbonatix
If you tapped your credit card to pick up your mango peach vape at the gas station, you may have to start making ATM runs instead, at least if Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes gets her way.
Alongside 24 other state attorneys general and the city of New York, Mayes is urging credit card companies to crack down on the sale of illegal vape products to underage buyers, her office announced Tuesday. The coalition sent letters to the corporate leadership of several major credit card companies, urging them to implement changes to prevent their companies from facilitating illegal sales of vape products.
The companies include American Express, Capital One, Citigroup, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Stripe, Sezzle and Block, which operates Square, Cash App and Afterpay. Citigroup declined to comment when reached by Phoenix New Times, and none of the other companies responded to inquiries.
“These payment networks are not passive bystanders,” Mayes wrote in a press release. “They are the financial backbone enabling sales of illegal vapes to minors.”
The coalition is requesting to meet with each company’s corporate leadership to discuss potential solutions, including prohibiting certain repeat offenders from using their networks.
Mayes previously sent a similar letter in November to Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify, requesting that the company remove merchants who didn’t take proper precautions against selling to minors. According to Mayes spokesperson Richie Taylor, discussions with Shopify are ongoing, but the company has agreed to “accept referrals” from states for online sellers that are “violating the law.”
Currently, federal law requires e-cigarette products to receive authorization from the Food and Drug Administration before they can be legally sold nationwide. The FDA has authorized the sale of only 41 of these vape products, with the only FDA-approved flavors being tobacco and menthol. However, popular fruity, dessert-based vape flavors — such as Blue Razz, Watermelon Ice and Strawberry Cream — have flooded the market. They’re all illegal or considered adulterated, meaning they can’t be legally shipped or sold.
Mayes argues that these online retailers and credit card companies are failing to comply with federal law by allowing the sale of these products and failing to uphold “basic safeguards” to prevent minors from purchasing illegal vape products.
“Credit card companies and payment processors must cut off the money flow to bad actors and keep dangerous, unauthorized products out of Arizona communities,” Mayes wrote.
During her time as attorney general, Mayes’ office has been on a crusade against vape retailers and products targeting children, especially through the sale of brightly colored, cartoon-shaped vapes. In March, Mayes announced that her office had issued more than 450 citations in 2025 to Arizona retailers for selling to minors, with 14% of retailers across the state failing inspection.
In July 2025, Mayes announced lawsuits against two Valley vape retailers for illegally selling to kids after they were busted by her office’s underage volunteers. In December, one of those companies was forced to pay $460,000 for its conduct and to enter into a consent judgment requiring reforms.
