DeWITT, N.Y. — Juul Labs Inc. will pay 143 school districts and BOCES in New York State more than $3.6 million to settle their claims alleging Juul “fraudulently and intentionally” marketed vaping products to children.
DeWitt–based Ferrara Fiorenza PC announced the settlement on Tuesday. Juul is a manufacturer and distributor of electronic nicotine vaporizers and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, per Yahoo Finance.
Clients of Ferrara Fiorenza coordinated with firm partner Jeffrey Lewis in seeking recovery for past and future damages relating to student vaping, including money spent on vaping-related issues on campus.
“Vaping among children is an extremely harmful and pervasive problem that our school district clients are facing every day,” Joseph Shields, managing partner at Ferrara Fiorenza, said. “We were thrilled that 143 of our clients opted to stand together and join this mass-action lawsuit to advocate for students and taxpayers throughout the state. This settlement will go a long way in helping our communities and school districts develop the resources needed to combat the student vaping epidemic.”
The settlement provides resources for schools to pay for future expenses. Those expenses include the cost of installing vape detectors in district bathrooms; hiring additional staff to supervise vaping areas on campus; hiring additional counselors to deal with well-documented social and emotional issues associated with nicotine addiction; and developing and operating educational programs about the harms of vaping.
The law firm cites U.S. News and World Report as indicating a variety of plaintiffs joined the nationwide lawsuit against Juul Labs Inc., including “individuals and families of Juul users, school districts, city governments, and Native American tribes.”
CNYBJ emailed Juul Labs requesting a statement in reaction to this settlement, but the company didn’t immediately respond.
On its website, Juul posted an update on the status of Juul products in the U.S. market. The message says, “Juul Labs continues to responsibly market our products in the U.S. We remain confident in our science and evidence and are pursuing all of our legal and regulatory options to continue to advance our mission.”