First round of lawsuits are coming in against JUUL

February 27, 2019 1 Comment

and as you may or may not already know, JUUL sells it's eLiquid in disposable pods with very high levels of nicotine, compared to it's competitors. The case, Colgate V. JUUL LABS, INC, hit United States District court back in October and has already been partially dismissed, however the motion to strike plaintiffs' nationwide class allegations is denied as it is not ripe at this stage of the litigation.

A lot of these lawsuits are based on a recent study out of Stanford which referred to the current e-cigarette market as “a nicotine arms race” as more and more competitors stupidly ratchet up nicotine levels to try to compete with JUUL. Mostly in part of its high nicotine content, several lawsuits have been filed claiming the product was responsible for causing nicotine addiction.

It's just the beginning of the big tobacco vs the people 2020 edition. In one case, the plaintiff alleges that his addiction to nicotine has actually worsened when he switched to JUUL in an effort to help stop smoking traditional cigarettes. He now consumes several of their non-refillable disposable pods per week. The Stanford study mentioned above equated one pod to 40 packs of traditional cigarettes. If his reported use is accurate, it suggests this guy is JUULing away at nicotine levels of at least 120 packs of cigarettes per week.  Of course we know from previous reporting on the study that it states "More than 70 e-liquid brands sell high-nicotine products (≥5%) in bulk (≥30 mL) equivalent to >40 cigarette packs." making the flubbing of those numbers by the plaintiffs silly for not doing their own proper research. 

Some of the other cases brought up in courts so far involved both adults and minors, all of whom claim the nicotine levels seriously addicted them to JUULing.  One mother detailed how severe restrictions placed on her son both at home and in school, because apparently stepping down her son on alternative devices where you can control the level of nicotine slipped her mind of being even a  possibility, unfortunately had no effect on his need to JUUL. Additional claims include false advertising from earlier advertising campaigns, and claims that JUUL's patented process is responsible for accelerating addiction.

JUUL of course insists the cases are without merit and will defend them, most likely to attempt to draw as little attention to themselves as possible in the media all while settling out of court and setting favorable precedent for itself.  None of this will probably even cost them a drop in the bucket of their recent $18 billion investment from tobacco giant Altria.  In fact I bet Altrias lawyers have already just gone into their old court cases and used the old find and replace tool to change every instance of tobacco to eLiquids in preparation. 

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