Age Restriction Payments Launched in Virginia and New Hampshire

On Jan. 1, Delegate Baxter Ennis (R-VA) filed Home Invoice 1585 to ban the sale of weight-loss or muscle-building dietary supplements and over-the-counter treatment to minors. The invoice is predicted to be formally launched to the Virginia Home of Delegates starting Jan. 8.

“No particular person shall promote to, distribute to, buy for, or knowingly allow the acquisition by any particular person youthful than 18 years of age, understanding or having motive to consider that such particular person is youthful than 18 years of age, an over-the-counter eating regimen capsule or dietary complement for weight reduction or muscle constructing,” HB 1585 reads.

In December 2024, the New Hampshire Home of Representatives additionally filed an age restriction invoice listed as Home Invoice 0516. The textual content is at the moment unavailable, however the invoice is titled “Prohibiting the sale of over-the-counter weight reduction and muscle constructing dietary supplements to minors.” The invoice is co-sponsored by Representatives Alicia Gregg (D), Lucy Weber (D), Mark Pearson (R), Gaby Grossman (D), Casandra Levesque (D) and Christal Lloyd (D).

Virginia and New Hampshire are actually the newest states to file age restrictions payments since late 2023. The entire is now as much as six states alongside Texas, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

Lawyer Steve Shapiro, Of Counsel at Rivkin Radler LLP (New York, NY) stated he has “plenty of considerations” in regards to the ongoing age restriction payments. He stated the payments are overly broad and are unclear about what merchandise are coated.

For instance, inexperienced tea extract is without doubt one of the components listed beneath the invoice. Shapiro stated inexperienced tea extract is marketed for varied functions, significantly its antioxidant properties. If studying the payments as broadly as potential, many extra merchandise except for weight reduction and muscle constructing may very well be impacted, he stated.

Shapiro added on-line retailers and e-commerce platforms could have to introduce “age restricted mail order supply” in the event that they need to proceed promoting merchandise in states with age restriction payments. This method is used for different managed substances comparable to alcohol in choose states.

He additionally appreciates the efforts of business commerce associations such because the Pure Merchandise Affiliation (NPA) and the Council for Accountable Diet (CRN), to problem these payments albeit with a lot failure.

“I’m not advocating for these payments. I’m not saying what they’re doing is correct or flawed, however as extra states be a part of this pattern, the query for the business is whether or not to speak with FDA and create federal requirements on precisely what is taken into account and guarded beneath these payments,” Shapiro stated.

To learn the Virginia invoice, go to https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1585/text/HB1585. To learn the New Hampshire invoice, go to https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/lsr_search/LSR_Results.aspx.