E-cig maker Juul to pay $462M to 6 states over youth addiction claims
Juul has agreed to pay $462 million to several states, including New York and California, after being sued for causing a “vaping epidemic” among kids by unlawfully marketing addictive products to minors.
“Juul targeted youth by glamorizing vaping with colorful ads featuring young models and flashy parties in New York City and in the Hamptons – all while downplaying the harmful effects of vaping,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday about the e-cigarette giant.
Juul took “a page out of big tobacco’s playbook” by misleading consumers into believing that vaping was safer than smoking cigarettes when really there is as much nicotine in one Juul pod as in a whole pack of cigarettes, James said.
Her office filed suit in 2019.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that young people smoke e-cigarettes more than any other age group, the AG said.
In fact, one-in-seven high school students have used smoking devices in the last 30 days.
Since Juul came into the market in 2015, e-cigarette usage by middle and high school students has “more than doubled,” according to the AG’s office.
“Juul’s lies led to a nationwide public health crisis and put additive products in the hands of minors who thought they were doing something harmless,” James said.
James said that $112 million of the settlement money will go directly to New York, over the course of eight years, to fund programs to help young people quit vaping.
Under the agreement, Juul will also make payouts to California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico and the District of Columbia.
Juul has also agreed to “the most stringent restrictions” advertising and can no longer target youth in marketing and sales including, James said.
For example, Juul can no longer feature models below the age of 35 in its promotional materials and it can’t sponsor school-related activities or run youth education and prevention programs.
The company’s products must now be secured behind store counters and there must be a crackdown on checking IDs to stop minors from purchasing e-cigarettes.
Juul has agreed to conduct checks at five percent of New York stores for four years to ensure compliance.
Juul did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement.
The deal means that the company will have settled with 45 states for over $1 billion. It also settled thousands of lawsuits by individuals and local governments for $1.7 billion last year.
“With this settlement, we are nearing total resolution of the company’s historical legal challenges and securing certainty for our future,” the company said in a statement.
Juul has said that since it changed its marketing practices in 2019 the use of its products by minors had fallen by 95%.
There are still pending lawsuits and investigations against Juul in Minnesota, Florida, Michigan, Maine and Alaska.
In June, the Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of Juul e-cigarettes in the United States. But the block was put on hold while the FDA reconsiders following Juul’s appeal.
With Post wires
