E-cigarette manufacturer Juul suffered a major financial blow on Tuesday after they tentatively agreed to pay $438.5 million as a way of settling an investigation into its controversial marketing practices — a significant sum for a company whose 2021 net earnings were $2.475 billion, according to their financial filings. In the process, Juul has potentially put an end to an investigation that involved almost three dozen states. It has been a long and winding journey for the embattled company, which has raised eyebrows in recent years for doing things like buying an entire issue of a scientific journal and allegedly targeting young people with its advertisements.
The latter practice is what forced Juul to agree to the nine-figure settlement paid out to a number of U.S. states, as studies have repeatedly shown that e-cigarettes have become a preferred method of smoking nicotine among young people. Indeed, a recent peer-reviewed research study estimated that between $130 million and $650 million of Juul's net 2018 revenue came from youth.
