E-cig giant Juul to pay $22.5 million in underage lawsuit

LOS ANGELES — E-cigarette firm Juul has agreed to pay $22.5 million in a US lawsuit that alleged the company deliberately targeted teenagers and lied about how addictive its products are, Washington state's attorney general said Wednesday.

The company, whose wide range of exotic flavored vapes -- including mango and creme brulee -- made it a byword for e-cigarettes in the United States, did not admit any wrongdoing but agreed to rein in its advertising.

In the latest such multi-million-dollar suit it has settled with a US state, Juul Labs agreed to pull commercials that appeal to young people, including on social media. It will also work to ensure stores in the state are not selling its products to anyone underage.

"Juul put profits before people," said Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who brought the suit in 2020.

"The company fueled a staggering rise in vaping among teens. Juul’s conduct reversed decades of progress fighting nicotine addiction.

"Today’s order compels Juul to surrender tens of millions of dollars in profit and clean up its act by implementing a slate of corporate reforms."

A Juul spokesperson told AFP, "this settlement is another step in our ongoing effort to reset our company and resolve issues from the past. We support the Washington State Attorney General’s plan to deploy resources to address underage use, such as future monitoring and enforcement."

This official added: "The terms of the settlement are consistent with our current business practices and past agreements to help combat underage use while offering adult smokers access to our products as they transition away from combustible cigarettes.”

E-cigarettes heat up a cartridge of liquid containing nicotine and other toxins into an aerosol. The user inhales the resulting vapor, mimicking traditional cigarettes.

Proponents of vaping say it is less harmful that traditional tobacco, though the science is not clear. The World Health Organization says using neither is the best course of action.

Opponents say the sweet-tasting flavors are appealing to young people, and the companies peddling them are -- knowingly or otherwise -- getting a whole new generation of people hooked on nicotine.

Washington's suit claimed Juul "flooded social media with colorful ads of young-looking models in fun poses that mimicked many of Big Tobacco’s ad campaigns. 

"At the same time, Juul pushed fruit and dessert flavored products such as mango and crème brulee."

By the end of 2018, Juul had more than 70 percent of the US market for e-cigarettes.

"Much of this was due to its popularity with teens, evidenced by the skyrocketing use of e-cigarettes among teenagers," the attorney general said.

Until 2018, Juul's packaging did not disclose that products contained nicotine, the suit said, despite their having up to five times the level found in similar products.

The settlement announced Wednesday is the latest to involve a lawsuit claiming Juul was marketing its products to children.

Last year, it agreed to pay Arizona $14.5 million and pledged not to target youngsters in the state. Months earlier it said it would pay North Carolina $40 million, but dd not admit liability.

The company is facing similar suits by other states, including New York and California, Bloomberg News reported.

Agence France-Presse 

Vape company Juul warned over claims e-cigarette safer than smoking

WASHINGTON — Federal health authorities on Monday blasted vaping company Juul for illegally pitching its electronic cigarettes as a safer alternative to smoking and ordered the company to stop making unproven claims for its products.

The Food and Drug Administration also upped its scrutiny of a number of key aspects of Juul’s business, telling the company to turn over documents about its marketing, educational programs and nicotine formula.

The FDA action increases the pressure on the nation’s best-selling vaping company, which has been besieged by scrutiny from state and federal officials since a recent surge in underage vaping. Federal law bans sales to those under 18. The FDA has been investigating Juul for months but had not previously taken action against the company.

A Juul spokesman said the company “will fully cooperate” with the FDA.

In a sternly worded warning letter, the agency flagged various claims made by Juul representatives, including that its products are “much safer than cigarettes.” Currently no vaping product has been federally reviewed to be less harmful than traditional tobacco products, and that won’t happen for a while.

In the past year, Juul has tried to position its e-cigarettes as a tool to help adult smokers stop smoking, using the tagline “Make the Switch.” In a separate letter to the company’s CEO, the FDA said it is “concerned” that the advertising campaign suggests “that using Juul products poses less risk or is less harmful than cigarettes.”


“JUUL has ignored the law, and very concerningly, has made some of these statements in school to our nation’s youth,” said FDA acting commissioner Ned Sharpless, in a statement.

The agency’s warning letter highlights an incident recounted by two New York high school students during a congressional hearing in July. The students told House lawmakers that a representative from Juul was invited to address the school as part of an assembly on mental health and addiction issues. During the presentation, the students said the representative told them the company’s product was “totally safe.” The representative also showed students a Juul device and claimed the FDA “was about to come out and say it was 99 percent safer than cigarettes.”

Juul says it discontinued its school programs — which were intended to discourage underage use — last September. Juul and similar small, discrete e-cigarettes have become a scourge in U.S. schools nationwide.

FDA warning letters are not legally binding, but regulators can take companies to court if they don’t comply with their requests. Juul has 15 business days to respond with a plan for fixing the problems.

E-cigarettes have been on the U.S. market for more than a decade, but the FDA didn’t gain the authority to regulate them until 2016. E-cigarette makers have until next May to submit their products to the FDA for health reviews.


Most experts, though, agree the aerosol from e-cigarettes is less harmful than cigarette smoke since it doesn’t contain most of the cancer-causing byproducts of burning tobacco. E-cigarettes generally heat liquid containing nicotine. But there is virtually no research on the long-term effects of vaping.

The recent outbreak of lung illnesses mostly involves people who said they vaped marijuana.

In the letter to Juul CEO Kevin Burns, FDA regulators said they were “troubled” by a number of other points raised at the congressional hearing. The letter cites testimony that Juul’s advertising “saturated social media channels frequented by underage teens,” and “used influencers and discount coupons to attract new customers.”

Last year, Juul closed down its social media sites. And under pressure, it also voluntarily removed its fruit and dessert flavors from retail stores. The FDA has proposed regulations on e-cigarettes that would restrict their sales in most stores, though they have not been finalized.

In a tweet Monday, first lady Melania Trump said she was concerned about the “growing epidemic of e-cigarette use in our children.”

FDA regulators also asked Juul to turn over detailed information about its potent nicotine formula. In the last year, researchers have published several papers analyzing Juul’s use of “nicotine salts,” a formulation which allows users to inhale higher levels of nicotine with reduced throat harshness.

Regulators asked the company to explain why it uses nicotine salts and how this affects potential addiction.

The letter also criticizes the company for apparently turning over more documents to congressional investigators than to the agency “despite previous document requests from FDA.” /jpv

source: technology.inquirer.net