An Illinois State Attorney’s Office has filed a lawsuit against a popular e-cigarette manufactureralleging that the company marketed its product to teens without disclosing JUUL health risks, according to CBS News.

State’s Attorney Michael G. Nerheim of Lake County, Ill. claims that JUUL violated the Prevention of Tobacco Use by Minors and Sale and Distribution of Tobacco Products Act by marketing that targeted teenagers.

“Just like cigarette companies did in the past, JUUL preyed on teens by using advertisements that glamorized their product in order to get kids hooked on nicotine,” Nerheim said in a statement. “It will take years of education and money to right the wrongs and cover the damages caused by JUUL’s marketing campaigns. To that end, the company should be held accountable for the massive expected cost to undo the damage they created.”

Although JUUL’s current advertising stressed the use of the e-cigarettes as an alternative to harmful traditional cigarettes, previous advertising allegedly targeted younger consumers. Dr. Robert Jackler, who cofounded Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA), told Forbes that past JUUL advertisements clearly aimed to attract young consumers.

JUUL reportedly deleted most of its social media posts in 2018, but Jackler and SRITA reportedly maintain an archive of past posts. Many of them, released by the company between mid-2015 and 2016, allegedly used images of attractive models sharing a JUUL device and dancing to club music. Jackler says that most of the company’s early marketing campaigns failed to mention that JUUL products could be used as an alternative to traditional cigarettes.

“The white paper is the most comprehensive and objective look at what Juul Labs did to market their product,” Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told Vox. “It’s impossible to review the data [in the paper] and conclude anything other than the marketing is the major reason this product became so popular among young people.”

The Illinois Attorney General lawsuit claims that JUUL intentionally sought to “fill the void left by big tobacco” through the use of new technology and social media advertisings.

JUUL has responded to the lawsuit in a strong statement claiming that it has “never” targeted youths in their advertising and do not want the products to be used by those who don’t already use nicotine products, especially younger consumers.

“We have no higher priority than to prevent youth usage of our products which is why we have taken aggressive, industry leading actions to combat youth usage,” a compnay spokesperson said in response to the JUUL health risks lawsuit.

“We strongly advocate for Tobacco 21 legislation, we stopped the sale of non-tobacco and non-menthol based flavored JUUL pods to our traditional retail store partners, enhanced our online age-verification process and strengthened our retailer compliance program with over 2,000 secret shopper visits per month. “

JUUL has faced several lawsuits alleging that the company’s marketing resulted in countless teenagers and young adults becoming addicted to nicotine despite never having smoked cigarettes. Some lawsuits also argue that JUUL health risks are not sufficiently disclosed by the company, meaning that younger consumers don’t understand how their choices will affect them.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented 
for informational purposes only.