E-cigarette company Juul has reached a settlement with 33 states, including Connecticut and Puerto Rico, agreeing to halt certain commercial practices, such as marketing to minors, and pay $438.5 million. The states have stated that the compensation will be used to implement bans on e-cigarettes and reduce nicotine activity.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong stated in a press release that Juul's advertising campaigns have created a new generation of nicotine addicts.
They ruthlessly sell e-cigarette products to minors, manipulate their chemical composition to cater to non-smokers, use inappropriate age verification procedures, and mislead consumers about the nicotine content and addictive potential of their products. The consequences of this improper behavior on public health are still unclear.
The settlement marks the end of a two-year multi-state investigation. Juul has also agreed to refrain from any sponsorship or naming agreements, cease marketing to all youths, and avoid depicting individuals under the age of 35 in their advertisements.
After an appeal in court in June and reaching a temporary agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Juul has continued to sell its products in the U.S. However, due to FDA regulation and legal battles, the company's market share in the vaping industry has significantly dropped. Back in May 2019, Juul held a dominant 75% market share, but according to VaporVoice, as of June 22, it had dropped to around 34.4%, with competitor Vuse narrowly surpassing Juul in the U.S. Meanwhile, the FDA is pushing for Juul to remove all of its products from U.S. shelves, continuing a thorough safety review of the products.
A spate of illnesses associated with the underground electronic cigarette market across the United States has further damaged Juul's public relations efforts.
In 2019, Juul Labs abandoned a campaign worth $11.6 million aimed at reversing San Francisco's ban on e-cigarette sales. In June 2020, the company announced that it was relocating its headquarters from San Francisco to Washington D.C. and expressed a desire to distance itself from the Silicon Valley startup culture and be closer to politicians and regulators.
According to a report by the Associated Press, Juul is still facing nine independent lawsuits from other states. These include a lawsuit filed by California and Los Angeles in November 2019, which focuses on the company's youth-targeted advertising and alleged failure to warn young consumers about the health risks of vaping. In June, a federal judge in San Francisco allowed a lawsuit against Juul Labs and parent company Altria Group Inc. to proceed on various issues related to misleading marketing.
The Associated Press reports that the company is still facing hundreds of individual consumer lawsuits.
A spokesperson for Juul stated in a press release to the Associated Press, "As we continue to fulfill our mission, we remain focused on our future of transitioning adult smokers from the leading cause of preventable death, combustible cigarettes, while combating underage use.
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