OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – E-cigarette giant Juul Labs will pay Washington state $22.5 million and has agreed to a variety of reforms to prevent underage use and sales under a settlement announced Wednesday by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
Ferguson filed a consumer protection lawsuit in September 2020, saying the country’s largest e-cigarette company targeted underage consumers and deceived consumers about the addictiveness of its product.
“Juul’s conduct harmed Washingtonians,” Ferguson said at a news conference in Seattle. “They harmed the youth of our state.”
Ferguson said that upon the product’s launch in 2015, the company flooded social media with colorful ads, fueling a spike in use and nicotine addiction among teenagers. The percentage of vaping high school sophomores in Washington rose from 13% in 2016 to nearly 21% by 2018, according to Ferguson’s office.
Under the consent decree filed in King County Superior Court, Juul Labs admitted no wrongdoing in settling the case. in an email after the announcement, the company called it “another step in our ongoing effort to reset our company and resolve issues from the past.”