Story at a glance
- Juul settled with North Carolina following a legal battle over the company’s marketing tactics.
- Officials accused the e-cigarette company of targeting teens and adolescents in its ads and partnerships.
- Settlement funds will go to programs that help people quit e-cigarettes and nicotine-based products.
The state of North Carolina has reached a settlement in its lawsuit with electronic-cigarette manufacturer Juul in an agreement requiring the company to pay $40 million in damages over the next six years, officials announced on Monday.
North Carolina sued Juul under allegations that the vaping company violated the state’s Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices Act, specifically with regard to Juul’s marketing practices geared towards adolescents and teenagers.
North Carolina is the first state to sue and claim victory against Juul for allegedly marketing its ecigarette products toward minors.
“For years, JUUL targeted young people, including teens, with its highly addictive e-cigarette. 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,” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said in a press release.
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Smoke e-cigarettes, or vaping, has increased dramatically among teenagers and adolescents since 2016. With its diverse flavor packs, stylish branding and user-friendly devices, Juul emerged as a leader in the e-cigarette industry.
A major study published online in the journal JAMA in 2019 found that roughly 4.1 million high schoolers and 1.2 middle school students reported using e-cigarettes. The majority of respondents surveyed identified Juul as their usual brand of choice.
Health concerns began to erupt following the mass usage, with more minors being admitted to hospitals with e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury.
This data prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue major crackdowns against Juul and other e-cigarette manufacturers. While the agency toyed with banning flavored pods, it ultimately issued a new policy requiring e-cigarette companies to submit their marketing schemes for review to be approved for marketing and distribution in the U.S.
Former President Trump also vocalized support for a potential federal ban in September 2019, although no such policy advanced.
Some state legislatures, such as those in North Carolina, took more immediate action.
“This win will go a long way in keeping JUUL products out of kids’ hands, keeping its chemical vapor out of their lungs, and keeping its nicotine from poisoning and addicting their brains,” Stein continued. “We’re not done – we still have to turn the tide on a teen vaping epidemic that was borne of JUUL’s greed. As your attorney general, I’ll keep fighting to prevent another generation of young people from becoming addicted to nicotine.”
With Juul’s settlement, the company will no longer be allowed to use marketing or advertising devices that target demographics under the age of 21, specifically forbidding the use of social media marketing, influencer partnerships and sponsoring events.
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Online and retail sales will be prohibited to customers who are not age verified. North Carolina also banned any new flavors or nicotine levels from being distributed in the state outside of the FDA-approved options.
The $40 million Juul will pay will be allocated across a bevy of social programs to help people quit e-cigarettes, prevent e-cigarette addiction and research e-cigarettes.
Juul officials released a statement on Monday as well following the settlement, stating that it coincides with the company’s efforts to fight underage usage of its products.
“We look forward to working with Attorney General Stein and other manufacturers on the development of potential industry-wide marketing practices based on science and evidence,” the statement reads. “We seek to continue to earn trust through action.”
As pushback against the company grew, Juul took action itself to discontinue selling non-tobacco and non-menthol flavored products ahead of an FDA regulation.
More than a dozen other states and territories that have taken Juul to court, including California, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C. and New York, all mainly focused on the company’s perceived predatory marketing tactics.
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