Massachusetts Investigating Juul Labs Over Sales to Minors

The State of Massachusetts is launching an investigation in order to determine whether renowned e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs Inc and two online retailers, have violated state law by failing to prevent minors from purchasing the vaping devices.

Diane Caruana

July 27, 2018

Last Tuesday, upon answering questions about the investigation, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, added that her office would be sending cease-and-desist letters to Direct Eliquid LLC and Eonsmoke LLC, demanding that the online companies stop selling Juul and other devices to Massachusetts residents without adequate age verification systems. “The bottom line, this is about keeping young people safe and healthy,” she said at a news conference.

In these last few months, the San Francisco-based Juul has been under serious scrutiny, amid serious accusations that the sleek e-cigarette which looks like a USB, is apparently addicting a whole new generation to nicotine.

Juul has taken a series of actions to prevent youth access to its products

Juul announced it would be spending $30 million to support state and federal initiatives to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products, and towards research on how to prevent youth access to the products.

In response to this Juul Labs has taken a number of actions. In May the e-cig maker announced that it would be spending $30 million to support state and federal initiatives to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products, and towards research on how to prevent youth access to the products.

Then in June the e-cig company said that it will cease promoting its products online. Adding that instead of advertising its devices, it will promote the devices as cessation tools by using images of former smokers, who have switched from smoking to vaping the Juul device.

Additionally, earlier this month Juul Labs announced that it will be selling lowered-nicotine pods that should help vapers reduce their nicotine levels. As it stands, a single Juul Pod contains about 5% nicotine. The new reduced-nicotine pods will contain roughly 3%, which amounts to a 40% reduction.

However, all the above has not stopped some individuals from filing complaints and lawsuits against the manufacturer. Two of the lawsuits were filed in California and seek both damages, and an injunction to curb Juul’s marketing practices.

The e-cig company says it has “stringent online tools”

The Massachusetts investigation will seek to determine how effective Juul labs is being at preventing minors from purchasing its products and what actions it is taking to ensure that online retailers are verifying a buyer’s age at points of sale, explained Healey.

In response to this, Juul Labs released a statement saying that it was committed to preventing underage use of its products, and that it has “stringent online tools” in place. “Furthermore, we have never marketed to anyone underage,” added the e-cig company.

Read Further: Reuters