Juul Labs, the electronic cigarette vaping brand, is set to fork out $438.5 million (£380 million) in a deal with 33 US states to end investigations into its advertising campaigns.
The company has been blamed for the rapid increase in teen vaping in the US in the past year.
While the settlement, that once threatened an all-out ban, will include several restrictions on how Juul can market its vaping products, the firm still faces nine separate legal battles with other states in the US.
Social media posts, PR events and giveaways were all investigated by the 33 states to discover whether the company was actively catering ads to under-age people.
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The settlement will be paid across the next six to 10 years and roughly amounts to around 25% of the brand’s sales in the US last year, which totals to $1.9 billion (£1.7 billion).
Prior to the investigations, the firm accounted for 75% of the US’s vaping market.
Connecticut attorney general William Tong announced that the deal had been completed on Tuesday on behalf of the 33 states, as well as Puerto Rico.
“We think that this will go a long way in stemming the flow of youth vaping,” Tong said.
“I’m under no illusions and cannot claim that it will stop youth vaping. It continues to be an epidemic. It continues to be a huge problem. But we have essentially taken a big chunk out of what was once a market leader, and by their conduct, a major offender.”
The news comes months after ‘Elf Bar’, a Chinese e-cigarette brand, broke British advertising rules by promoting its products to young people.
