Tag: Minnesota

  • Minneapolis Mulls $15 Minimum Pack Price

    Minneapolis Mulls $15 Minimum Pack Price

    Credit: Nikolay

    The Minneapolis City Council in Minnesota is considering adding new rules and restrictions on sales of tobacco products, including a minimum price for cigarettes and other products that could be the highest in the nation.

    The changes under consideration include a minimum price of $15 per pack of cigarettes or package of four or more cigars, or for certain-size packages of snuff or snus, according to media reports.

    The changes to the city’s existing tobacco products ordinance also would bar price discounts or coupons for tobacco products, and — starting Dec. 1 — ban free samples of tobacco products, and ban smoking of “samples” inside any retail establishment licensed to sell tobacco products.

    The changes would also increase the penalties for businesses that violate the ordinance — including moving from a $200 fine to a $500 fine for a first violation.

  • Juul and Altria to Pay $60.5 Million in Minnesota Deal

    Juul and Altria to Pay $60.5 Million in Minnesota Deal

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    Juul Labs and Altria Group will pay more than $60 million to settle Minnesota litigation relating to Juul’s marketing practices, according to Law360.

    Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Juul in 2019, alleging its marketing was deliberately targeted to minors and that the company failed to adequately verify customers’ ages, as required by law.

    In April, the parties announced a settlement without disclosing the terms pending public filing of the papers.  

    Under the terms of the consent judgment filed with the Hennepin County District Court, Juul and Altria—a one-time Juul investor—will jointly pay $60.5 million to the state over an eight-year period. Altria will foot $5 million of the bill, according to the agreement.

    The deal is front-loaded and will require the companies to pay nearly 60 percent of the settlement in less than one year, according to the Attorney General’s office.

    The agreement also prohibits Juul from marketing or selling to children and young adults, restricts the company’s ability to sponsor certain events and use outdoor advertising in the state, prevents it from distributing product samples and requires that it accurately disclose the nicotine content of its products, according to the judgment.

    The deal with Minnesota follows a $438.5 million settlement with more than 30 states and territories in September, a $255 million deal in December to end economic loss claims in multidistrict litigation and a $23.8 million deal in March to resolve the city of Chicago’s suit, among others.

    And Juul last month agreed to pay $462 million to settle claims with California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York and Washington, D.C., over youth marketing claims.

  • Minnesota Settles Juul Lawsuit

    Minnesota Settles Juul Lawsuit

    Photo: mehaniq41

    Minnesota has settled its legal case against Juul Labs and Altria Group for deceptively marketing e-cigarettes. The terms of the deal will be kept confidential until formal papers are publicly filed with the court.

    “After three weeks of trial highlighting and bringing into the public record the actions that Juul and Altria took that contributed to the youth vaping epidemic, we reached a settlement in the best interest of Minnesotans,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison in a statement.

    “We followed in the footsteps of former Attorney General Skip Humphrey, who led the historic 1998 tobacco trial in Minnesota. Once again, Minnesota has demonstrated leadership in taking these cases head on, including going to trial to hold tobacco companies accountable, protect our community’s health and protect our kids. One of my goals in bringing this case was to send a message: We will not tolerate youth marketing of nicotine products in Minnesota,” said Ellison.

    Minnesota’s deal comes less than a week after Juul Labs agreed to pay $462 million to settle similar claims brought by New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico and the District of Columbia.

    Of the more than a dozen states and hundreds of local governments that have sued Juul, Minnesota was the first to go to trial. Filed in 2019, the state’s lawsuit alleges that Juul developed sleek devices and flavors that were appealing to youth and that Juul’s marketing deceptively attracted and addicted young people. In 2020, Minnesota amended its complaint to include Altria as a defendant: In 2018, Altria spent $12.8 billion to acquire a 35 percent share in Juul.

    In a statement, Juul Labs stressed the importance of resolving legal challenges from the company’s past. “We are pleased to have reached a settlement with the state and will work to finalize this agreement over the coming weeks,” the company wrote.

    Juul Labs has now settled with 48 states and territories, providing over $1 billion to participating states to further combat underage vaping and develop cessation programs. In addition, the company has resolved private litigation that covers more than 5,000 cases brought by approximately 10,000 plaintiffs.

    “As we reach total resolution of the company’s past, we are focused on our path forward to maximize the value and impact of our product technology and scientific foundation,” wrote Juul. “Our technology already has transitioned over 2 million adult smokers from combustible cigarettes. And our priorities remain to secure authorization of our PMTAs [premarket tobacco product applications] based on the science and lead the category with innovation to accelerate our mission and advance tobacco harm reduction for over 31 million adult smokers in the U.S. and over 1 billion adult smokers worldwide.”

  • Minnesota AG Opens Juul Lawsuit

    Minnesota AG Opens Juul Lawsuit

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    Credit: Sang Hyun Cho

    Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison personally opened his state’s case against Juul Labs on Tuesday, accusing the e-cigarette maker of using “slick products, clever ads and attractive flavors” to hook children on nicotine as the first of thousands of cases against the company reached trial, reports AP.

    Minnesota is seeking more than $100 million in damages, accusing Washington, D.C.-based Juul of unlawfully targeting young people to get a new generation addicted to nicotine, according to the Federal News Network.

    “They baited, deceived and addicted a whole new generation of kids after Minnesotans slashed youth smoking rates down to the lowest level in a generation,” Ellison said. “Now, Big Tobacco is back with a new name but the same game. Juul wiped out the work of our state with their slick products, clever ads and attractive flavors.”

    Juul has faced thousands of lawsuits nationwide but most have settled, including 39 suits with other states and U.S. territories. Minnesota, which won a landmark $7.1 billion settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998, has not settled. Minnesota added tobacco industry giant Altria, which formerly owned a minority stake in Juul, as a co-defendant in 2020.

    David Bernick, an attorney for Juul, promised jurors an “intense and interesting” trial. He said the purpose of Juul was always to convert adult smokers of combustible cigarettes to a less dangerous product that would still provide a satisfying nicotine experience—not to lure kids to the products. E-cigarettes aren’t safe but aren’t deadly either, he said; they’re somewhere in between. And Juul did nothing to intentionally drive youth demand, he argued, suggesting that the growth in youth vaping was more likely due to increasing adult demand resulting in “leakage” to kids.

    William Geraghty, an attorney for Altria, denied Ellison’s assertions that Altria invested heavily in Juul because it ultimately wanted to hook kids on its cigarettes, which include Marlboro. He said Altria bought its passive stake because Juul had found the key to successfully switching adult smokers of conventional cigarettes to a less harmful product while Altria’s competing e-cigarettes had failed in the marketplace.

    The lawsuit against Juul, filed in 2019, alleges consumer fraud, creating a public nuisance, unjust enrichment and conspiracy with Altria. The jury trial before Hennepin County District Judge Laurie Miller is expected to last about three weeks.

  • First Trial for Juul Youth Marketing Claims

    First Trial for Juul Youth Marketing Claims

    Credit: Mehaniq41

    A trial against Juul Labs and Altria for youth marketing begins today in Minnesota, USA. It is the first state to go to trial against the e-cigarette manufacturer and tobacco company.

    Jury selection in the trial comes more than three years after Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison first filed a lawsuit against Juul Labs, reports CARE11.

    “We will prove how Juul and Altria deceived and hooked a generation of Minnesota youth on their products, causing both great harm to the public and great expense to the state to remediate that harm,” said Ellison in a press release.

    Minnesota is the first case to go to trial against Juul since more than a dozen states sued the company beginning in 2019.

    “It’s a pretty significant case,” said David Schultz, a law professor at the University of Minnesota. “The case comes down to two or three basic issues. First, it’s about the claim that Juul marketed to minors. Second, it did nothing in terms of trying to prevent minors from accessing their product. And third, it was about the fact that they did not make appropriate disclosures regarding the health and safety risks surrounding the use of vaping and some of these smokeless tobaccos.”

    The state believes Juul Labs, enabled by Altria, “engaged in consumer fraud, negligence and created a public nuisance.”

    Altria Group exchanged its entire investment in Juul Labs for a nonexclusive, irrevocable global license to certain of Juul’s heated-tobacco intellectual property in early March.

    This isn’t new territory for the state. Minnesota was the first state in the country to successfully sue the tobacco industry and win in the 1990s.

    Earlier this year, a U.S. district judge handed Juul Labs preliminary court approval of a $255 million settlement resolving claims by consumers that it deceptively marketed e-cigarettes, as the company seeks to resolve thousands of lawsuits.

    The company reached a nearly $24 million settlement with the city of Chicago in mid-March.

    Juul and Altria have denied the allegations.

    In court documents from November 2022, the defendants stated, “Minnesota has reaped billions of dollars from tobacco settlements and taxes over the last decade for the purpose of preventing tobacco use and remedying its harms. Yet even after determining that there was an alleged youth vaping problem among Minnesota youth, time and again the state chose to ignore recommended tobacco prevention funding guidelines and instead used these funds to bankroll unrelated projects—like the Minnesota Vikings football stadium.”

  • Minnesota Schools Urge End to Flavors

    Minnesota Schools Urge End to Flavors

    Image: Arcady | Adobe Stock

    Students and school staff called on Minnesota lawmakers to end all flavored tobacco sales, according to PR Newswire.

    Progress has stalled on the bill (SF2123/HF2177) to end the sale of menthol and all flavored commercial tobacco products in Minnesota, according to a press release. Last week, around 250 youth, parents and advocates from around the state joined Minnesotans for a Smoke-Free Generation’s Day at the Capitol and urged Minnesota lawmakers to end flavored tobacco sales.

    This is the fourth year a flavored commercial tobacco sales bill has been in play at the Capitol. At a news conference, students and school staff shared how youth tobacco use, especially youth vaping, remains a huge problem in Minnesota schools.

    “We’re asking lawmakers to stay focused on one of the top health problems affecting our kids: tobacco use,” said Bethlehem Yewhalawork, a program manager at NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center. “Passing a comprehensive flavor policy will prevent youth addiction and improve health for all Minnesotans.”

    The 2022 Minnesota Student Survey found that over 75 percent of Minnesota’s eighth graders and 11th graders who use tobacco report using flavored products.