Tag: Juul Labs

Research: Juul Nicotine Can Compete With Combustibles

Photo: Ethan Parsa from Pixabay
The Juul System may deliver a sufficiently satisfying level nicotine to compete with combustible cigarettes for adult smokers, according to new research.
Published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, the clinical study compared the nicotine delivery profile of the Juul System with other nicotine-containing products, including cigarettes, to assess their pharmacokinetic profiles. The study found that while the initial nicotine delivery for the Juul System was similar to that of combustible cigarettes, the maximum and total amount of nicotine delivered was lower than that of combustible cigarettes, on par with another ENDS product, and higher than nicotine gum.
“When considering laws and regulations governing nicotine, policymakers should bear in mind that providing a similar nicotine effect and experience to combustible cigarettes is critical to facilitate an adult smoker’s transition away from smoking,” said Mark Rubinstein, vice president of science at Juul Labs in a statement. “E-cigarettes have the potential to displace combustible cigarettes, but only if they deliver nicotine at levels to satisfy smokers.”

November 12, 2020
Judge Denies Request to End Juul Labs Lawsuit

A judge in Durham County, North Carolina’s Superior Court denied an attempt by Juul Labs to have a May 2019 lawsuit closed. The suit was filed by the N.C. Attorney General and targets the e-cigarette maker’s business and marketing practices.
Juul filed motions to end the litigation, limit the damages it could be assessed, or postpone the trial currently set for May. Judge Orlando Hudson denied the motions, according to a story in the Winston-Salem Journal.
North Carolina was the first state to sue Juul over accusations that it targets underage youths with its products. Most specifically, the Attorney General’s office accuses Juul of violating the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
October 31, 2020
China Cracks Down on Counterfeit Juul Maker

Chinese authorities helped Juul Labs close down a manufacturer that allegedly counterfeited Juul brand vaping devices and sold the fake products overseas.
The operation was one of the largest ever broken up by the e-cigarette maker in its efforts to crack down on potentially dangerous counterfeit products that could make their way to underage buyers, company officials say.
According to a story in the New York Post, Shenzhen Kang Erqiang Electronic Technology Co. — which hawked bogus Juul vape devices and flavor pods under the name Sourvape Technology — sold about $324,000 worth of counterfeit items over a 16-month period starting in 2018, Juul said.
“While these are the numbers Chinese authorities used in court during prosecution, actual sales could be far more significant,” said Adrian Punderson, Juul’s vice president of brand enforcement.
The probe led to the August conviction of the Shenzhen factory’s operator, who confessed to his involvement in the scheme and was sentenced to more than three years in prison, Punderson said. Juul said it was informed of the conviction earlier this month.
The operation courted e-cigarette retailers and distributors with email blasts boasting about how perfectly it could produce Juul’s packaging, according to the startup. Juul officials learned about these emails in February 2019 and started an investigation, posing as a buyer to try and identify who was behind the scheme, the company said.
Juul reps ultimately got inside the counterfeiter’s factory in March of last year, where about 15 employees worked to churn out fake Juul products six days a week, according to the company, according to the story.
Juul said the operation was even producing pods in flavors such as mango and cucumber, which the company stopped selling in the US last year amid concerns about teens getting hooked on its e-cigarettes.
Juul passed on its findings to Chinese authorities, who launched their own probe and eventually seized 14,600 bogus items when they raided the factory in April 2019, according to Juul.
Juul says its efforts to crack down on counterfeiters have led to the seizure of more than 600,000 items worth close to $4 million over the past year. The shady manufacturers — who primarily operate in China — sell their products for as much as 65 percent below Juul’s standard wholesale price, but those products could be dangerous because they’re made in unsanitary conditions without proper testing or quality control, according to the company.
“As a leader in vapor technology, it is our obligation to support enforcement against illicit and illegal products as we strive to reset the vapor category and earn a license to operate in society,” Punderson said in a statement.
October 31, 2020
Juul Labs Shrinks Valuation to $10 Billion

Juul Labs has cut its valuation to about $10 billion from $12 billion at the end of last year, reports Reuters.
Juul was valued at $38 billion in December 2018, when Altria Group took a 35 percent stake in the company.
The latest write down follows recent decisions to exit certain markets and related restructuring costs, according to the memo sent to Juul employees by chief executive officer K.C. Crosthwaite.
“Today’s valuation does not surprise me, and I expect other investors to also arrive at lower valuation marks that factor in our recent restructuring,” he reportedly said.
Juul has faced heightened regulatory scrutiny following a rise in teenage vaping and a ban on the sale of popular flavors.
In September, the company said it would make a significant cut to its global workforce and explore pulling out of some European and Asia-Pacific markets to save cash.
Earlier this month, the company announced its exit from Germany.
October 30, 2020
Juul Labs Class Action Continues to Woo Plaintiffs

Credit: Sebastian Pichler
The multi-district federal class-action lawsuit against defendant Juul Labs continues to grow. South Carolina-based Lexington One School District joined the class action on Oct. 14.
Attorneys around the country continue to woo school districts to join the suit. In a recent presentation to the Leon County School District in Florida, attorneys for the Romano Law Group asked the public school district to join the lawsuit that alleges vaping manufacturers and distributors are targeting young adults in their marketing.
Attorney Eric Romano told the Leon board this week that if the district didn’t join the suit, schools would face extra costs to battle what has been termed a vaping “epidemic.” Recent reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, have found that youth vaping is on the decline.
The multi-district federal lawsuit, first filed October 2019 in the Northern District of California, has hundreds of plaintiffs, ranging from unnamed minors to school districts in several states, including Pennsylvania, Maryland and California.
October 29, 2020
Juul Labs to Exit Germany

Photo: Juul Labs
Juul Labs will withdraw from Germany at the end of the year, reports W&V, citing a company spokesman in Hamburg.
The company said it needed to set priorities in to be successful in the long term. “In this way one can invest in research and development and future products in core markets,” it stated.
German consumers will be able to purchase Juul products until stocks run out.
Following a wave of layoffs, Juul’s German subsidiary had only about a dozen employees left, which have now been terminated, as well.
Juul had already exited Austria this summer and plans to leave Switzerland soon.
The company, which enjoyed great success in the United States until a regulatory backlash, has found it challenging to crack the European market due to EU limits on nicotine.
Juul products sold in the EU contain significantly lower doses of nicotine than those on the U.S. market, making it difficult for them to compete against combustible cigarettes in Europe.
Recently, Juul was also forced to temporarily halt shipments in Germany because its packages were missing a mandatory recycling symbol.
October 19, 2020
Juul Calls for Common Ground in Harm Reduction
Joe Murillo
For tobacco harm reduction to be successful, it is imperative that alternative products can compete with combustible cigarettes and that adult smokers have clear information on a product’s relative risk compared to smoking, according to Juul Labs Chief Regulatory Officer Joe Murillo.

In his closing remarks at the 2020 Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum (GTNF), Murillo spoke on how the category can sustainably accelerate the market away from combustible products while at the same time combating underage use and fostering a more responsible marketplace for vapor products that ensures equal access for all adult smokers.

Murillo’s address pinpointed critical areas where the industry and stakeholders can find common ground in the pursuit of progress, including educating society on the benefits of tobacco harm reduction and using risk-proportionate regulation to elevate alternatives that can ultimately end the death and disease caused by smoking combustible cigarettes.

According to Juul Labs, this year’s GTNF provided an invaluable opportunity for a diverse set of stakeholders to come together and speak about using innovation and regulation to create sustainable change in the tobacco and nicotine market.
September 29, 2020
Pittsburgh Latest City to Sue Juul Labs for Marketing

More than 70 school districts across the United States have filed lawsuits against Juul Labs for its marketing practices.
The Pittsburgh Public School district gave approval last week for the district to enter into a contract with the Frantz Law Group of San Diego, the firm filing the lawsuits against Juul Labs in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, where the company is headquartered.
“It’s very similar in concept to the tobacco litigation of some 20 years ago except this is not a class action,” district solicitor Ira Weiss said during a school board meeting Wednesday, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The lawsuit seeks damages for the cost of installing vaping detection devices in school restrooms as well as funding for educational programs for students and families about the health risks of vaping.
Weiss said about 70 school districts nationwide have filed similar lawsuits, including several other school districts in Pennsylvania.
Austin Finan, a Juul spokesman, said in a statement that the corporation would respond to the allegations in the complaint through the appropriate legal channels, according to the story. In the meantime, Finan said the company would “seek to earn the trust of society by working cooperatively with attorneys general, legislators, regulators, public health officials and other stakeholders to combat underage use and transition adult smokers from combustible cigarettes.”
“As part of that process, the company reduced its product portfolio, halted television, print and digital product advertising and submitted a Premarket Tobacco Product Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration including comprehensive scientific evidence to support the harm reduction potential of its products and data-driven measures to address underage use,” he said.
The lawsuit is a contingent fee case, meaning it will cost the district nothing if the district does not win. The Frantz Law Group would receive 20 percent of any settlement if the case is decided in 2020, or 25 percent if the case is settled in 2021 or later, the story states.
Board member Terry Kennedy said it was a “wise” decision for the district to file the lawsuit.
“We don’t have any upfront expenses, and there’s no risk to the taxpayers,” Ms. Kennedy said. “There’s a lot of benefit to our students if they understand what’s going on related to Juul and the others.”
September 29, 2020
State of Washington Files Suit Against Juul for Teen Marketing

Credit: Insurance Journal
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a suit against vapor manufacturer Juul Labs last week, alleging the company designed its products to appeal to underage consumers, and was deceptive in the addictiveness of its product.
Ferguson alleges that by “pushing unfair and deceptive marketing strategies appealing to youth,” Juul’s e-cigarettes fueled a “staggering rise in vaping among teens,” according to a story on komonews.com.
“Upon the launch of the device, the company flooded social media with colorful ads of young-looking models and pushed fruit and dessert flavored products,” Ferguson wrote in the filing. “At the same time, Juul vehemently denied it marketed to underage users — echoing unlawful strategies used by major cigarette corporations in decades past.”
Ferguson also claimed Juul mislead consumers by avoiding mentioning that their cigarette pods contained nicotine in their initial marketing, only complying in 2018 when the federal government required disclosure. His office quotes a survey from 2018 indicating 63 percent of Juul users from between 15-24 years old didn’t know their products contained nicotine.
In addition, the state alleges Juul failed to meet the state’s vapor product licensing requirements meaning every sale of a Juul device from August 2016 through 2018 is considered illegal.
Ferguson didn’t say what specific damages he was seeking.
September 6, 2020
Juul to Cut Jobs, Considers Exit From Asia and Europe

Juul Labs has said it is planning another significant round of layoffs and considering halting sales across Europe and Asia. That could mean pulling out of as many as 11 countries and shrinking the company’s footprint to its core markets of the U.S., Canada and the U.K., according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.
Juul cut about one-third of its 3,000 workers earlier this year and already has halted sales of its vaporizers in several countries. The once fast-growing company has been scaling back its operations to combat a sharp drop in sales. It currently has about 2,200 employees, the story states.
It’s the third major shakeup since September as Juul attempts to revamp its strategy in the face of heightened scrutiny of vaping.
The bulk of the cuts will hit Juul’s marketing department. Juul said it would cut 150 jobs and phase out the position of chief marketing officer, adding to 500 reductions announced in October. In total, the company is slashing 650 jobs, or 15 percent of its global workforce.
“As the vapor category undergoes a necessary reset, this reorganization will help Juul Labs focus on reducing underage use, investing in scientific research, and creating new technologies while earning a license to operate in the U.S. and around the world,” Juul CEO KC Crosthwaite was quoted as saying.
The company’s future advertising efforts will focus on direct marketing. It’s still enforcing its strategy of avoiding TV, print and online marketing.
Juul said it will continue to invest in its product team as the company explores new technologies to combat underage use. The company has reportedly submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a new version of its vaporizer designed to unlock only for users at least 21 years old.
Juul’s value has deteriorated as concerns mounted about the health risks of vaping and U.S. regulators pushed for a crackdown on e-cigarettes. Juul was also criticized for selling flavored pods that became popular with teens. Altria, which invested $12.8 billion for a 35 percent stake in Juul in 2018, recently wrote down its investment by $4.5 billion.
September 3, 2020