Recently, the e-cigarette industry has once again ushered in a major turning point – the US e-cigarette giant JUUL Labs announced a $79 million settlement agreement with Florida, promising to stop marketing activities targeting teenagers and adjust its business model to meet public health goals. This incident not only marks that JUUL has paid the price for its past aggressive marketing strategies, but also sounded the alarm for the entire industry. In this context, emerging e-cigarette brands represented by VEEHOO have demonstrated possible paths for sustainable development of the industry through active compliance and social responsibility practices.
The core content of JUUL’s settlement this time includes: Stop youth-oriented marketing: prohibit the use of advertising strategies that attract minors, such as animations, social media influencer promotions, and restrict advertising in places where teenagers gather (such as around schools). Pay high compensation: $79 million will be used to fund youth e-cigarette addiction prevention programs, which further highlights its legal risks compared with the $439 million (34 states settled) that JUUL previously paid to other states and the cumulative settlement amount of more than $1.7 billion in national lawsuits.
Product adjustment: continuing the measures taken since 2019, removing flavors that attract teenagers such as mango and caramel from the shelves, and retaining only limited options such as tobacco flavor. These measures reflect JUUL’s efforts to cope with regulatory pressure and market trust crisis, but its market share has fallen from 75% at its peak to less than one-third, showing the urgency of compliance transformation.
While JUUL is deeply involved in controversy, emerging brands represented by VEEHOO have shown another side of the e-cigarette industry through differentiated strategies:
Strict age verification system: VEEHOO uses dual identity authentication technology, combined with the real-name purchase system of offline channels, to prevent minors from contacting products from the source. This practice far exceeds JUUL’s early loose sales policy and meets the FDA’s strict requirements for age restrictions.
Transparent ingredient disclosure: Unlike JUUL, which was sued for concealing nicotine concentration, VEEHOO clearly marks nicotine content and health warnings on packaging and official website, and introduces third-party test reports to enhance consumers’ right to know.
Public welfare-oriented marketing: VEEHOO has taken the initiative to abandon entertainment advertising and instead sponsored public welfare projects for smoking cessation, such as cooperating with medical institutions to develop smoking cessation aids and investing part of the profits in youth health education activities. This “de-commercialization” strategy is in stark contrast to JUUL’s past reliance on influencers and trendy marketing.
Environmental innovation: The brand has launched biodegradable cartridges and recycling equipment to reduce the burden of e-cigarette waste on the environment. This move echoes the global trend of plastic reduction and is similar to the exploration of sustainable materials by cross-border brands such as FURLA.
JUUL’s settlement case shows that if e-cigarette companies ignore their social responsibilities, they will eventually face double punishment from the law and the market. VEEHOO’s practice provides a transformation model: Policy coordination: Actively cooperate with regulatory requirements, such as the US FDA’s regulations on flavor restrictions and marketing reviews, and incorporate compliance into the core of corporate strategy. Technological innovation: Develop low-nicotine products, smart dosage control devices, etc., to balance harm reduction goals and user experience. Industry collaboration: Promote the formulation of industry-wide standards, such as establishing a unified age verification system or ingredient safety database to avoid “bad money driving out good money.”
JUUL’s high settlement is not only the result of legal accountability, but also a reckoning of the industry’s barbaric growth. VEEHOO and other brands have proved that the e-cigarette industry still has development potential under the compliance framework by taking the initiative to assume social responsibility and innovating product design. In the future, only by putting public interests above commercial interests can we truly realize the original intention of “harm reduction” and reshape the image of the industry.
Tags: Youth e-cigarette addiction prevention plan, tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes, low nicotine products, veehoo vape
