A 15-year-old girl’s parents have filed a lawsuit against Juul, the wildly popular e-cigarette company, for causing their daughter’s nicotine addiction.
The New York couple isn’t alone. At least three such claims have also been filed in New Jersey on the behalf of other young people. All of the lawsuits essentially say the same thing: Juul knowingly targeted young people in its advertising and marketing campaigns. They developed a product that they knew would appeal to teenagers and falsely marketed it as a “safe” alternative to traditional cigarettes.
A report by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indicates that there may be some truth to the allegations. The number of teens who “vaped” rose from 11.7% to 20.8% between 2017 and 2018 alone. That’s a 78% increase in the use of e-cigarettes in just one year.
For its part, Juul has maintained that it never targeted the nation’s youth, saying (in response to the New Jersey suits) that its product was only meant to be “a viable alternative for the 1 billion current adult smokers in the world.” Juul’s sleek look is notable for the way it mimics an actual cigarette.
In the New York case, the young girl involved smoked her first Juul when she was only 12. She was particularly fond of the company’s fruit-flavored cartridges. The use of sweet flavors in e-cig cartridges has become controversial precisely because they make nicotine more palatable to young people. Flavored e-cigarettes are now illegal in New York.
The odds are high that these cases are going to start an avalanche of similar personal injury claims. If you believe that e-cigarettes have injured you or your child, find out more about your legal options today.