Juul Labs will pay nearly $440 million to settle teen vaping probe

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the electronic cigarette manufacturer agreed to the settlement Tuesday. The settlement puts an end to 33 states’ two-year investigation into Juul’s marketing practices. The investigation found that Juul used free giveaways, launch parties, and youthful models in their advertisements to attract younger users. The settlement amounts to roughly 25 percent of the company’s sales of $1.9 billion last year. Tong said that the settlement will help stem what he called an epidemic of teen vaping.

Is teen vaping actually an epidemic? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that about 11.3 percent of high schoolers and only about 2.8 percent of middle schoolers were currently using e-cigarettes. A 2018 survey from the CDC said only 14.9 percent of adults had ever vaped, and only 3.2 percent currently vaped. About 12.5 percent of adults smoked traditional cigarettes in 2020, according to the CDC.

Dig deeper: Read Jim Long’s report from the WORLD archives about how the tobacco industry is starting to move into the cannabis business as states legalize marijuana.