$235 Million Settlement Against Altria Over Juul Youth Vaping Campaign

Juul Labs arrived on the market with a device that looked like a USB drive, delivered nicotine at concentrations far above conventional cigarettes, and came in flavors like mango and mint that had no obvious appeal to adult smokers. When Altria Group, the parent company of Marlboro, acquired a 35 percent stake in Juul in December 2018 for roughly $12.8 billion, it brought distribution muscle and retail shelf access to a product that federal regulators and school administrators had already flagged as a youth-addiction crisis in progress.

By the time litigation consolidated in the Northern District of California, plaintiffs included teenagers and young adults who said they became addicted to nicotine through Juul products, as well as school districts that had watched vaping spread through bathrooms and hallways, diverting staff time and resources to enforcement and intervention. Montgomery Public Schools in Alabama was among the hundreds of districts that joined the case.

Beasley Allen attorney Davis Vaughn, who represented thousands of individual plaintiffs injured by Juul products, described school districts as being 'on the front lines of the youth vaping crisis, taking time and energy to combat it.' The litigation centered on how Juul designed and marketed its products, particularly the use of flavors and a sleek form factor that critics argued were aimed at attracting first-time nicotine users rather than adults seeking to quit cigarettes.

On May 10, 2023, Altria announced it had agreed to pay $235 million to resolve the claims against it. The company's executive vice president and general counsel, Murray Garnick, maintained that Altria believed 'the claims against us are meritless' but said the company chose settlement to avoid the costs and uncertainty of prolonged litigation. Settlement funds were to be distributed among the school districts and individual plaintiffs in the weeks following the announcement.

Altria had previously sold its Juul stake at a steep loss following regulatory pressure and mounting litigation, ultimately writing off most of the investment. The $235 million settlement covered claims brought by individual plaintiffs, class action participants, and more than 1,400 government-entity plaintiffs including school districts.