JUUL to pay $439M in multi-state settlement regarding youth-marketing practices News
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JUUL to pay $439M in multi-state settlement regarding youth-marketing practices

E-cigarette maker JUUL will pay 37 states $439 million to settle an investigation into its youth-marketing practices according to a Tuesday statement from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In addition to the payments to 37 states, the settlement will reportedly force JUUL to comply with “strict injunctive terms severely limiting their marketing and sales practices.” The settlement resolves a two-year, multi-state investigation by the Attorney General. The investigation examined JUUL’s marketing and sales practices, specifically regarding “underage users, claims about the nicotine content of its products, and statements regarding the risks, safety and effectiveness as a smoking cessation device.”

In a statement on the JUUL’s website, the company stated that they “appreciate efforts by Attorneys General to deploy resources to combat underage use.” JUUL also stated that they were actively submitting an administrative appeal regarding the FDA’s marketing denial order of JUUL products.

This is not the first time JUUL was investigated for its youth-marketing. In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced major policy updates and enforcement efforts to curb the JUUL sales and distributions to teens after the FDA found more than 2 million middle and high school students were users of e-cigarettes in 2017. In 2019, two high-school students testified to Congress that a JUUL marketing representative informed their ninth-grade classroom that the device was “totally safe” during a mental health and addiction seminar.