Juul settles NC Vaping lawsuit, agrees to pay $40 million

Juul has agreed to pay North Carolina $40 million to settle the state’s first lawsuit alleging its marketing practices have caused high-nicotine e-cigarette addiction among young people.

The settlement was announced Monday by Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general, who indicted the company in May 2019. In the agreement, the company denies any wrongdoing or liability.

The consent requires Juul to sell its products over the counter in North Carolina stores only and use a third-party age verification system for online sales. The command also causes Joule to send “Mysterious Shopper”

; Teens Visit 1,000 Stores Each Year to check if they are selling to minors

It also prohibits companies from using models under the age of 35 in their ads, and says they should not post ads near schools.

“For years Juul has targeted young people, including teenagers, with highly addictive e-cigarettes,” Stein said in a statement. “It ignites the fire and makes the children Ours is aflame of the plague. which you can see in every high school in North Carolina.”

Juul spokesman Joshua Raffel said in a statement: “This agreement is consistent with our ongoing efforts to reset our company and our stakeholder relationships. As we continue to combat underage use and increase the likelihood of harm reduction for adult smokers.”

The North Carolina complaint accuses Juul of designing, marketing and selling e-cigarettes to appeal to young people. and misleading the strength and dangers of nicotine in its products. This is a violation of the State’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Act.

Thirteen states, including California, Massachusetts, and New York, including the District of Columbia. filed a similar lawsuit. The main claim in each case is Joule knew, or should have known, that high nicotine was used to lure teenagers to high-nicotine pods. Some of the youth in the case claimed serious harm. It can also cause lung damage and mood disorders.

E-cigarettes and other vaping products It was invented as an alternative to reducing the dangers of combustible cigarettes. This is linked to about 480,000 deaths in the United States each year. But Juul, which first featured hip young people in ads, billboards and social media, It quickly caught the attention of teenagers and young people who had never smoked. Although nicotine is not life-threatening. But some research shows that nicotine can impair the developing brain.

A group of 39 lawyers has spent the past 16 months reviewing Juul for its marketing and sales practices. as well as the Food and Drug Administration.

Juul also faces other legal threats. The Federal Trade Commission sued Juul, Altria and related parties to try to unravel a 2018 deal that paid Altria 35 percent of Juul Altria, the country’s largest tobacco company, to pay $12.8 billion to acquire the stake. But after that, the value of the investment was recorded down to $1.5 billion.

The commission said the two companies had reached an agreement. Including Altria’s investment, which eliminates competition that violates federal antitrust laws, the FTC also claims Altria and Juul started out as competitors in the e-cigarette market. Threats by removing its own Mark Ten e-cigarettes in exchange for a share of Juul’s profits, both Altria and Juul have denied the allegations.

There are also multi-district litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Such litigation combines various cases into 3 ways: personal injury; This includes the plaintiff who claims to be addicted to drugs. lung injury and other health problems Tracking the actions of consumers claiming that individuals are paying too much for products that make them addictive. and monitoring government agencies This includes school districts and counties seeking restitution for vaping-related damage. Juul investors such as Altria and other entities are also involved. The posture has begun And the first case is scheduled to go to court in February 2022.

Beyond all legal challenges The company is awaiting a decision from the FDA on whether its products will remain on the market. The agency must decide by early September whether Juul and other tobacco and vaping products are “appropriate for public health protection” and can be sold further.