New York, California and several other states were awarded a hefty $462m settlement with the embattled, former vaping giant Juul Labs last week, resolving lawsuits claiming that the company aggressively marketed its e-cigarettes to young people and fuelled a vaping crisis.
The agreement brings many of the company’s legal woes to a conclusion, with settlements reached with 47 states and territories, and 5 000 individuals and local governments. Juul is in the middle of a trial in Minnesota, an unusual case in which a settlement has not been reached.
But the company’s efforts to broker deals over the lawsuits have cost it nearly $3bn so far, an enormous sum for a company still seeking official regulatory approval to keep selling its products, notes The New York Times.
The latest settlement resolved the claims of New York, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Mexico. It follows other lawsuit settlements that took Juul to task for failing to warn young users that the high levels of nicotine in their e-cigarettes would prove addictive.
California contended in its lawsuit that for months, Juul did not disclose in its advertising that its devices contained nicotine. It detailed the company’s early marketing efforts, which included handing out free samples of the e-cigarettes in 2015 at trendy events.
Attorneys-General who conducted investigations said Juul executives were aware that their initial marketing lured teenage users into buying its sleek vaping pens, but did little to address the problem as the adolescent vaping rate exploded.
In New York City and the Hamptons, the company held glamorous parties and “falsely led consumers to believe that its vapes were safer than cigarettes and contained less nicotine”, said Letitia James, New York’s Attorney-General.
“Juul’s lies led to a nationwide public health crisis and put addictive products in the hands of minors who thought they were doing something harmless,” she said, adding that the state would get nearly $113m from the deal.
California will receive the biggest piece of the settlement, estimated at nearly $176m. Rob Bonta, the state Attorney-General, said Juul used the tactics of Big Tobacco to reignite a youth nicotine epidemic, after years of declines in cigarette smoking among younger Americans.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Vaping giant Juul coughs up millions to nearly 10 000 plaintiffs
Juul to fork out millions of dollars after e-cigarette marketing probe
FDA delays Juul e-cigarettes’ decision but culls almost a million products
Investor in e-cigarette maker Juul announces $4.5bn loss in value of stake