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Juul Labs is likely to pay $438.5 million in a tentative settlement of the multi-state investigation of the company’s sales and marketing practices that targeted teenagers,The New York Timesreported.
Nearly three dozen states are behind the investigation that found that the company did in fact appeal to young people through the hiring of young models, giving out free samples and their use of social media, theTimesreported Tuesday.
“We think that this will go a long way in stemming the flow of youth vaping,” William Tong, Connecticut’s attorney general, said in a news conference per theTimes. “We are under no illusions and cannot claim that it will stop youth vaping. It continues to be an epidemic. It continues to be a huge problem. But we have essentially taken a big chunk out of what was once a market leader.”
On Tuesday, Juul said that this settlement “is a significant part of our ongoing commitment to resolve issues from the past. The terms of the agreement are aligned with our current business practices which we started to implement after our companywide reset in the fall of 2019.”
This settlement would prohibit Juul Labs, which makes up 40% of the e-cigarette market, from marketing to young people and falsely representing the amount of nicotine in its products.
In 2019, the company took many of their flavored pods — which appealed to teenagers — off the shelves, and in September 2021, the company claimed they were “committed to transitioning adult smokers away from combustible cigarettes while combating underage use.”
Months prior, Juul wasordered to pay $40 millionto the state of North Carolina for marketing its product to teens. Attorney GeneralJosh Stein said in a July statementthat “JUUL targeted young people, including teens, with its highly addictive e-cigarette,” adding, “It lit the spark and fanned the flames of a vaping epidemic among our children — one that you can see in any high school in North Carolina.”
TheTimesreported that in June, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it was denying Juul Labs' request for marketing authorization to sell vapes — ordering the company to stop selling the products. However, Juul was able to get a temporary reprieve and continue sales.
The order came nearly two years since the FDA began its review of data from Juul as it sought authorization for its products to remain on the market, perTheWall Street Journal.
source: people.com
