Illinois
Illinois getting $67.6 million in Juul settlement
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Legal professional Basic Kwame Raoul introduced final week that he and 6 different attorneys common have settled a lawsuit towards e-cigarette producer Juul that can web Illinois $67.6 million.
That quantity represents Illinois’ share of a $462 million multistate settlement in a lawsuit that accused the corporate of illegally advertising and marketing its merchandise to kids.
“Directing my client division to provoke an investigation into Juul was a day-one precedence for me after I used to be sworn in in February of 2019,” Raoul mentioned throughout a video information convention. “Inside months of taking workplace we served an intensive civil investigative demand on the corporate and earlier than the tip of 2019 we had filed go well with. We have been aggressively litigating towards them in Illinois since.”
The lawsuit is the newest in a string of instances Juul has settled in latest months. Since 2019, the corporate mentioned in an announcement, it has reached settlements with 47 states and territories, paying out greater than $1 billion.
As a part of its settlement with Illinois, Juul additionally agreed to not market its merchandise to folks underneath 21, to not use social media influencers to advertise its merchandise and to require shoppers to be age verified earlier than they’ll view any of its web site content material, amongst different restrictions.
“This settlement with seven state attorneys common represents one other vital half in our ongoing dedication to resolve points from the corporate’s previous,” the corporate mentioned. “The phrases of the settlement, like prior settlements, present monetary assets to additional fight underage use and develop cessation applications and mirror our present enterprise practices, which had been carried out as a part of our company-wide reset within the fall of 2019.”
In April 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a legislation elevating the minimal age to buy tobacco merchandise from 18 to 21. And in 2021, he signed one other legislation making use of the identical age restrict to vaping merchandise and banning promoting that promotes vaping as a way of quitting tobacco use.
Raoul and the opposite attorneys common within the case mentioned proceeds of the settlement could be used for enforcement of vaping legal guidelines, remedy and applications aimed toward stopping underage nicotine use.
The opposite states concerned within the go well with had been New York, California, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Colorado, in addition to Washington, D.C.