Washington Suit Accuses JUUL Of Targeting Underage Consumers

SEATTLE — Washington state has filed a lawsuit against e-cigarette company JUUL, alleging that the company designed their products to appeal to minors and lied to consumers about the addictiveness of their products.

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson's office writes that JUUL's "unlawful conduct fueled a pervasive and staggering rise in e-cigarette use and nicotine addiction among youth" in Washington state. His suit also claims that JUUL failed to get their products properly licensed, meaning that every JUUL device sale between August 2016 and April 2018 may have been illegal.

Ferguson's office claims that JUUL knew their product was targeting teens, but continued to put profits over public safety. In particular, they note that the companies "Vaporized" social media campaign used "colorful ads of young-looking models and pushed fruit and dessert flavored products." The ads were wildly successful, contributing to JUUL's 70 percent market share in the e-cigarette industry.

“Pushing unfair and deceptive marketing strategies appealing to youth, the company fueled a staggering rise in vaping among teens," Ferguson said. "JUUL’s conduct reversed decades of progress fighting nicotine addiction, and they must be held accountable."

JUUL claims their advertisements have not intentionally targeted children, but as JUUL businesses succeeded, use of vapes and e-cigarettes among teens has risen. The Attorney General's Office says that, in 2019, one in 10 middle schoolers used e-cigarettes. In comparison, in 2011 just 0.6 percent of middle schoolers did. Plus, a 2018 study of JUUL's Twitter followers found that as much as 80 percent of their audience was between the ages of 13 and 20.

Washington's suit also alleges that JUUL was deceptive about how much nicotine their product contains. Ferguson's office says JUUL refused to even mention nicotine in their packaging until 2018, and only after the federal government started requiring them to do so. As a result of their omission, a 2018 survey found that 63 percent of JUUL users between the ages 15 and 24 had no idea that JUUL products contained nicotine, when in fact each JUUL pod contains much more nicotine than a regular cigarette, and more than double the nicotine of some of their competitors.

If successful, the Consumer Protection act could fine up to $2,000 per each of JUUL's alleged violations— and since the suit claims JUUL made "tens of thousands of violations of the Washington State Consumer Protection Act" that money could rack up fast. The suit also seeks to strip JUUL of money made through unlawful sales, and force them to alter their marketing to be more accurate, and to no longer target children.