CT Leads $438.5 Million Agreement With JUUL Labs

CONNECTICUT — Connecticut and 33 other states and territories announced a tentative $438.5 million settlement with e-cigarette company JUUL over its marketing and sale practices.

State Attorney General William Tong’s office was one of the major negotiators of the 33 state agreement. Connecticut will receive at least $16.2 million, which will be used for smoking cessation and prevention efforts.

“JUUL’s cynically calculated advertising campaigns created a new generation of nicotine addicts,” Tong said in a statement. “They relentlessly marketed vaping products to underage youth, manipulated their chemical composition to be palatable to inexperienced users, employed an inadequate age verification process, and misled consumers about the nicotine content and addictiveness of its products.”

The most notable part of the settlement are the mandates placed on JUUL that will limit its ability to target underage children with advertising, Tong said at a news conference.

The Office of the State Attorney General found that Juul used many of the same techniques and strategies to target youth that were previously used by Big Tobacco, but updated for the social media age, Tong said.

“For those of us who have young kids or kids in high school, this continues to be an extremely challenging time,” Tong said.

About 11.3 percent of U.S. high school students and 2.8 percent of middle schoolers use e-cigarettes, according to a 2021 U.S. Food and Drug Administration survey. About one in four youth who vape do so daily. Nearly 85 percent use flavored e-cigarette products.

The tentative settlement will prohibit marketing to youth through several injunctive processes. Juul won’t be able to depict people under 35 in marketing, and they won’t be allowed to advertise on billboards or public transportation. They also can’t pay for product placement in movies and TV shows, and can’t pay social media influencers to endorse their products.

Juul also won’t be able to fund school education programs.

The company also won’t be able to advertise vaping as a smoking cessation aid, which requires approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.