Minnesota’s attorney general (AG) filed a lawsuit against the maker of the e-cigarette Juul in Hennepin County District Court on Dec. 4. The head attorney for the state argued that the company engaged in negligence, deceptive advertising and consumer fraud in marketing its product to young users.
In the AG’s filing, he detailed how the company purposefully designed and manufactured products that they knew would appeal to a younger demographic. Some of these appealing items included mango- and desert-flavored refill pods. Juul ultimately removed these from the market in October after public outcry and numerous other states filed lawsuits against them.
The AG also detailed in his filing how Juul was keen on getting social media influencers to pose for photographs with its e-cigarettes. Many of those young individuals that the company hired to pose with its products also created hashtags that much-impressionable youth shared with their peers.
In this filing, the AG described how he believed that Juul intentionally targeted youth with its advertising as a way of trying to gain a stronghold in the uber-competitive e-cigarette market. In his filing, the AG noted that the youth was a lucrative and untapped market that it could win over.
The AG described how the Juul was negligent in verifying customer ages who were making purchases online. This allowed many Minnesota teens to purchase the e-cigarette and its refills even though they were under the age of 18.
A survey conducted by state health officials this year showed that the number of eighth-graders in Minnesota that have vaped has doubled since 2016. The number of eleventh-graders that have done the same had increased by 54%.
If your child has been duped into trying harmful e-cigarettes after being exposed to predatory marketing by one of these companies, then you’ll want to consult with a consumer fraud attorney. Your Vadnais Heights lawyer will advise you of your right to file suit and recover compensation for a company’s deception.
