The state of Alaska has reached a $5.8 million settlement with Washington D.C.-based Juul Labs, ending a five-year lawsuit over allegations that the e-cigarette maker targeted Alaskan youth with nicotine vaping products.
“This case took five years and a great deal of work from our public health and consumer protection teams, but it was worth it,” said Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox. “We now have strong court-enforceable limits on how these companies can operate in Alaska, and we’ve obtained a per-capita recovery that ranks near the top nationally, with those dollars going straight into prevention and consumer protection.”
The settlement is payable over the next five years, with the first payment arriving in December, the Alaska Department of Law said in a statement Friday. The consent judgment specifies that half of the net proceeds must be used to fund the state’s tobacco prevention and control programs and the other half must be used to fund its consumer protection programs.
The $5.8 million settlement ends a case that began in November 2020.
In January 2024, the state of Alaska and Richmond, Virginia-based Altria reached a $2 million settlement, resolving the state’s claims that Altria also played a role in creating Alaska’s youth vaping epidemic.
The combined settlements from Juul and Altria total $7.8 million, placing Alaska among the highest in the nation on a per capita basis, the Alaska Department of Law said in a statement.
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