Vaping: Juul Labs agrees thousands of US settlements

E-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs is to settle more than 5,000 US vaping lawsuits, after being accused of targeting teenagers with its products.

The deal was reached with about 10,000 plaintiffs in a California court. The financial terms have not been revealed.

In September, the firm agreed to pay hundreds of millions to end a probe of its advertising.

Juul has been accused of fuelling the rise in teenage vaping and has been forced to take cost-cutting measures.

The firm has repeatedly denied targeting young people and has not admitted wrongdoing in previous cases.

Critics point to the colourful packaging, variety of flavours and use of young models in their campaigns.

In 2022, more than 2.5m US school students used e-cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some of those involved in the case said that they were not aware that the product could be more addictive than cigarettes.

Philip Federico, a lawyer who represented dozens of school districts in the case, described the settlement as a “tremendous victory for school districts burdened by the vaping epidemic”.

Juul itself said the settlement “represent a major step toward strengthening Juul Labs’ operations and securing the company’s path forward”.

In the earlier case, Juul agreed to pay $438.5m to settle claims it downplayed its products’ risks and targeted underage buyers.

The firm’s products were briefly banned this year and in November Juul said it had secured investment allowing them to stay in business.