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Juul Labs electronic cigarette company is set to pay a whopping $1.2 billion to settle around 10,000 lawsuits wherein the company was accused of having a big role in the rampant spread of vape use among the youth in the United States.
Many claimed that Juul Labs is a major contributor to the vaping epidemic involving youngsters in the country. The pre-trial verdict was announced last week by a federal judge at a U.S. District Court in San Francisco that is handling the case.
The aim of the more than a billion dollar settlement was to sort out all the lawsuits filed in court, including class action, personal injury, and school-district claims against the e-cigarette company.
As per Fox Business, Juul Labs has already sorted out claims in 37 states and territories over the past year while having continuous dialogues with stakeholders on how to resolve the remaining cases.
In any case, last month, the company was able to secure an undisclosed amount of investment from some of its first investors to keep its business afloat. This was just last month, and at that time, it also revealed the plans for reorganization, which will also lead to job cuts.
Juul Labs said this investment would be used to keep its business operations running while it continues with its administrative appeal for the ban imposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the sales and marketing of its e-cigarette products. The health regulator suspended the ban and agreed to review the company’s marketing application after it filed an appeal.
With regard to the resolution, Juul Labs stated, "These settlements represent a major step toward strengthening Juul Labs’ operations and securing the company’s path forward to fulfill its mission to transition adult smokers away from combustible cigarettes while combating underage use."
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that the settlements would include more than 8,500 personal injury claims, 32 tribal cases, and over 1,400 governmental-entity suits cases. However, the specific details of who exactly is eligible to join in the settlement are still being worked out according to Lieff Cabraser law firm, which is representing the plaintiffs.
Photo by: Jordan Whitfield/Unsplash
