Mr Tobias said he was not surprised that Juul did not admit wrongdoing.
“That almost always happens in such comparisons – it’s a standard clause,” he said.
Juul has not entered into any further serious settlement talks, however, as none of the other 2,600 lawsuits against the company are set to begin during 2021. The company is waiting for the FDA’s decision before deciding how to proceed, so a person familiar to the thinking of its top managers. If the FDA allows Juul’s products to remain in the market to help adult smokers quit, executives believe their bargaining power will be strengthened.
However, a settlement with numerous plaintiffs would be expensive. Juul experienced a slump in sales over the past year, analysts say. The company is private and does not share its financial information.
Marc Scheineson, an attorney at Alston & Bird who also practices small tobacco businesses, called the $ 40 million in the North Carolina settlement “a relatively small sum to be paid to counter rising legal fees and pilgrims-on syndrome the plaintiff to avoid “.
He also pointed out that most of the steps that Juul has decided under the approval level, such as: B. No advertising near schools and behind the counter sales, are actions it has already taken to gain public favor. Mr Scheineson also said that electronic nicotine delivery products such as Juul “still have important adult public health benefits as a proven effective tool to quit smoking more harmful cigarettes”.
July also faces other legal threats. The Federal Trade Commission is suing Juul, along with major tobacco company Altria and related parties, to terminate the 2018 deal that earned Altria 35 percent of Juul. Altria, the Marlboro cigarette maker, paid $ 12.8 billion for that stake, but has since written down the value of the investment to $ 1.5 billion.
The commission says the two companies have reached a number of agreements, including Altria’s investment, which eliminates competition in violation of federal antitrust laws. The FTC also claims that Altria and Juul started out as competitors in the e-cigarette market, but as Juul became more popular, Altria countered the threat by getting its own Mark Ten e-cigarette in exchange for a share of Juuls. took profits from the market. Both Altria and Juul have denied the allegations.
