E-cigarette giant Juul pays $438.5 million to settle multi-state government investigation
According to news in the morning of September 7, Beijing time, local governments announced on Tuesday that e-cigarette maker Juul Labs has agreed to pay $438.5 million (about 3.039 billion yuan) to settle lawsuits filed by 34 states and territories in the United States. The lawsuit accuses Juul of underestimating the risks of its products and peddling them to minors.
As part of the settlement, Juul agreed to scale back some marketing measures, including animated ads, placement ads and portraying users as people under the age of 35. The settlement stems from a two-year investigation led by Connecticut, Texas and Oregon.
Juul did not admit any wrongdoing, calling the settlement "our major effort to address historical problems". They also said that the relevant marketing restrictions were also in line with the measures taken by the company after the company's "company-wide adjustment" in 2019. Juul faced pressure from regulators to remove most e-cigarette flavors from the market and stopped running many ads.
Juul has previously settled similar cases with Arizona, North Carolina, Louisiana and Washington. Some states, including New York, California, Massachusetts and Illinois, continue to sue the company.
Thousands of U. S. local governments and individuals have also filed lawsuits against Juul, most of which have been incorporated into a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco.
The first trial of the case will be held in November, and the plaintiff is the San Francisco school district. The second trial is scheduled for January next year, and the plaintiff is the family of a Tennessee teenager addicted to Juul e-cigarettes.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) briefly banned the sale of e-cigarettes in June, but suspended the ban after an appeal by Juul and agreed to reconsider the matter.
However, Altria, the parent company of Marlboro cigarettes, said in July that its 35 per cent Juul stake now has a market capitalization of just $450 million, down from $12.8 billion in March 2018, because of concerns that Juul would eventually not be approved.
