Juul brand vape cartridges are pictured for sale at a shop in Atlanta, Georgia.
Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters
Juul will pay $462 million to settle claims by six states and Washington D.C. that the vaping company marketed its addictive e-cigarettes to underage teens, five Democratic attorneys general announced Wednesday.
The agreement is the largest multi-state settlement the company has reached to date, the attorneys general said during a press conference. The deal will impose strict limits on Juul’s sales and marketing abilities, and will force Juul to secure its products behind retail store counters and verify the age of purchasers, the officials added.
The states that reached the settlement with Juul are New York, California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Illinois and Colorado.
“There is no doubt that Juul played a central role in the vaping epidemic today,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said. “Juul is paying for widespread harm caused and will undergo severe restrictions on its marketing and sales practices.”
California will receive $175.8 million, which will be used for e-cigarette research, education and enforcement, the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta said. New York will get $112.7 million over an eight-year period, which will support underage vaping abatement programs across the state.
Massachusetts will receive $41 million.
Juul did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The settlement adds to years of heavy scrutiny on Juul, the one-time Silicon Valley darling among both tobacco giants and investors.
Teen vaping skyrocketed nationwide after the company launched in 2015, leading the Food and Drug Administration to declare an “epidemic” of underage e-cigarette use just three years later. Parents, school administrators and politicians largely blamed the company for hooking a generation of young people on its high-nicotine pods.
Since then, Juul has been buffeted by lawsuits and state-led investigations over its products and allegedly…
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