JUUL to pay $438.5M in multi-state settlement for deceptive marketing, sales practices

AUSTIN (KXAN) – On Tuesday, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a $438.5 million multi-state settlement with JUUL Labs concerning the e-cigarette manufacturer’s marketing and sales practices.

Paxton said Texas would recover $42.8 million from the settlement, and it would “force JUUL to comply with a series of strict injunctive terms severely limiting their marketing and sales practices.”

The investigation found that JUUL became a dominant player in the vaping industry by “willfully engaging in an advertising campaign that appealed to youth, even though its e-cigarettes are both illegal for them to purchase and unhealthy for youth to use.”

Paxton said the settlement document was in the process of being finalized.

“The $438.5 million would be paid out over a period of six to ten years, with the amounts paid increasing the longer the company takes to make the payments,” Paxton said. “If JUUL chooses to extend the payment period up to ten years, the final settlement would reach $476.6 million.”

The states and territories involved in the settlement are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.