The proposed dealwould resolve thousands of lawsuits in multidistrict litigation based inNorthern California.

Juul was once the most popular vaping brand, but it has been thetarget of a number of lawsuits claiming it helped fuel the teen vaping crisis.Credit...Seth Wenig/Associated Press

By Christina Jewett

Periscope News group-

Informant :Nicole Hausmann

Dec. 10,2022

Juul Labs has agreedto pay $1.7 billion to settle more than 5,000 lawsuits by school districts,local governments and individuals who claimed that its e-cigarettes were moreaddictive than advertised, according to people with knowledge of the deal.

The amount for thedeal, which involves a consolidation of cases centered in Northern California,is more than three times the sum reported for other Juul settlements in otherstate and local cases thus far.

The settlement amountwas reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

In September, thecompany agreed to pay $438.5 million to settle a multistateinvestigation into whether the company had targeted young people. States investigating the companybristled at ads featuring young models and fruit and dessert flavors thatappealed to adolescents. The resulting settlement restricted Juul from aimingmarketing of its products at young people.

Full terms of the settlement, reached earlier this week,have not been disclosed. But Juul has repeatedly denied targeting minors andhas not admitted wrongdoing in reaching other agreements with plaintiffs.

Juul continues tosell its products in the United States while awaiting a decision by the Foodand Drug Administration, which regulates e-cigarettes. In June, the agencydenied the company’s application to allow its vapes and pods to remain on themarket. Juul went to court and received a temporary reprieve; the F.D.A. thenput its decision on hold for further review, which is continuing.

The new settlement does not put an end to claims againstAltria, which owned a 35 percent stake in Juul, according to lawyers for theplaintiffs. The agreement does not offer funds immediately, but will open up aclaims process for the 10,000 plaintiffs to apply for distribution of thefunds.

Christina Jewett covers the Food and Drug Administration. She isan award-winning investigative journalist and has a strong interest in how thework of the F.D.A. affects the people who use regulated products. @By_Cjewett

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