Juul Labs Inc., one of the largest e-cigarette companies, has agreed to pay $462 million to settle a lawsuit brought by six states and Washington, D.C.
As part of the settlement, the company has agreed not to advertise its products within 1,000 feet of public schools and to curb advertising to youth in states that brought the lawsuit. Those include California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. The agreement is a similar one made in past lawsuits.
Over the past few years, the company has been embroiled in multiple lawsuits after being accused of targeting its products to teenagers and contributing to the rise in underage vaping. The lawsuits have cost the company over $1 billion in settlements.
Just last month, Juul agreed to pay the city of Chicago $23.8 million in a lawsuit that alleged the company marketed its products to underage users. That money would be used to fund youth prevention and reduction programs and education. On Monday, the company settled a similar lawsuit with West Virginia for another $7.9 million.
Last year, Juul was required to pay $438.5 million after 33 states and Puerto Rico probed Juul's promotion of its products to underage users.
The most recent settlement brings the total number of states and territories that have settled with the company to 47, according to Juul.
School districts have taken part in many similar lawsuits on the local level, including in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and Lake County, Illinois.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students reported e-cigarette use over a 3-day period in 2022. Of survey respondents, 22% reported using Juul, which was among the top three commonly reported brands. Puff Bar took the No. 1 spot, with nearly 30% of teenagers using the product, and Vuse took second place at 24%.
“Juul has intentionally targeted minors for the sale of its e-cigarettes," said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in a statement following the settlement Wednesday. "After inappropriately marketing its product as a smoking cessation device, Juul products actually served as a gateway to cigarette use for youth who had never smoked before."
In New York, another state involved in the lawsuit, the attorney general's office said e-cigarette use among New York City's high school students increased threefold between 2014 and 2018, following Juul's launch in 2015.
“JUUL lit a nationwide public health crisis by putting addictive products in the hands of minors and convincing them that it’s harmless — today they are paying the price for the harm they caused,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement.
Juul Labs Inc. said in a statement following the settlement's announcement that the settlement money would "further combat underage use and develop cessation programs and reflect our current business practices, which were implemented as part of our company-wide reset in the fall of 2019."
"Since then, underage use of JUUL products has declined by 95% based on the National Youth Tobacco Survey," the statement said.
