Vape vendor JUUL should pay $22.5 million to resolve Washington Lawyer Normal Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit, which asserts that JUUL violated the regulation when it designed and marketed its merchandise to enchantment to underage shoppers and deceived shoppers in regards to the addictiveness of its product.
Along with the fee, JUUL should cease its illegal conduct and implement severa; reforms, together with:
- Stopping all its promoting that appeals to youth
- Stopping most social media promotion
- Precisely advertising the content material and results of the nicotine in its merchandise
- Strict practices to verify the age of shoppers who buy JUUL merchandise — together with a secret shopper program and on-line buy age verification.
“JUUL put income earlier than folks,” Ferguson mentioned in a press release. “The corporate fueled a staggering rise in vaping amongst teenagers. JUUL’s conduct reversed many years of progress combating nicotine habit, and at the moment’s order compels JUUL to give up tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in revenue and clear up its act by implementing a slate of company reforms that may maintain JUUL merchandise out of the arms of underage Washingtonians.”
Underneath the consent decree, filed in King County Superior Court docket, JUUL is ordered to pay the $22.5 million complete over the subsequent 4 years.
The Lawyer Normal’s Workplace plans to determine a brand new Well being Fairness unit utilizing these sources. The unit will work on the intersection of a number of authorized divisions within the Lawyer Normal’s Workplace, together with civil rights, shopper safety, and complicated litigation, and reply to misleading and discriminatory well being care practices that disproportionately influence weak communities and communities of shade.
In accordance with Ferguson’s 2020 lawsuit, JUUL’s conduct fueled a staggering rise in e-cigarette use and nicotine habit amongst youth. Upon the launch of the gadget, the corporate reportedly flooded social media with colourful advertisements of young-looking fashions in enjoyable poses that mimicked a lot of tobacco’s advert campaigns. On the similar time, JUUL pushed fruit and dessert flavored merchandise reminiscent of mango and crème brulee.
JUUL denied it marketed to underage customers.
From the product’s launch in 2015 to the tip of 2018, JUUL gained management of greater than 70% of the market share for e-cigarettes, and far of this was attributable to its recognition with teenagers, evidenced by the skyrocketing use of e-cigarettes amongst youngsters, in line with the Lawyer Normal’s workplace.
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