Juul Labs Inc., a manufacturer of e-cigarettes, agreed on Wednesday to pay $462 million over eight years to settle allegations of illegally marketing its addictive products to minors in six U.S. states, including New York and California, as well as the District of Columbia. The agreement, which also covered Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Mexico, means that San Francisco-based Juul has now paid more than $1 billion to settle with 45 states, ending most of the protracted legal battles over its business practices. In the deal, the business made no admission of wrongdoing.
Juul still sells tobacco and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes
“Juul’s lies led to a nationwide public health crisis and put addictive products in the hands of minors who thought they were doing something harmless,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said at a news conference. “Today is another step forward in our fight to protect our kids from getting hooked on vaping and nicotine,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta added. Juul said in a statement that the use of its products by people under age 18 had fallen by 95% since the fall of 2019 when it changed its marketing practices as part of a “company-wide reset.” “With this settlement, we are nearing total resolution of the company’s historical legal challenges and securing certainty for our future,” the company said.
Juul still sells tobacco and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes with little advertising, but its market share has decreased from a once-dominant 75% in 2018 to less than 30%. The agreement reached on Wednesday resulted from many lawsuits that the states and the District of Columbia brought against the defendant. In addition to lawsuits or ongoing investigations from Florida, Michigan, Maine, and Alaska, Juul is still being sued by Minnesota, where a trial is now taking place. It previously secured settlements totaling $439 million with 34 states and territories and several individual state settlements.
The items were momentarily prohibited by the US Food and Drug Administration in June
In addition to the state settlements, the business agreed to pay $1.7 billion last year to resolve thousands of claims brought by regional governments and private citizens. Juul stopped advertising extensively and removed most of its flavors from the market in 2019 in response to pressure from regulators. The items were momentarily prohibited by the US Food and Drug Administration in June, but the agency later agreed to revisit its decision after the company filed an appeal.
Altria Group Inc., the company that makes Marlboro cigarettes, which was once Juul’s biggest investor, is also being sued for its alleged involvement in the marketing of Juul’s e-cigarettes and hasn’t settled. Altria said last month that it has sold its Juul investment in exchange for some of the company’s intellectual property. Its stake in Juul was valued at $250 million as of December, down from $12.8 billion in 2018.
The majority of e-cigarettes contain nicotine, an addictive substance also found in regular cigarettes
Adolescent e-cigarette usage in the US is still at “concerning levels” and poses a significant public health risk, according to the director of the FDA’s Centre for tobacco products last year. Approximately 2.55 million middle and high school kids in the United States reported using e-cigarettes over a four-month period earlier in 2022, according to federal health officials’ data from last October.
The majority of e-cigarettes contain nicotine, an addictive substance also found in regular cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nicotine during adolescence can harm the areas of the brain that regulate attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. The CDC has also stated that nicotine uses throughout adolescence may increase the likelihood of later drug addiction.
