After having raised $17B at a peak valuation of $38B, Juul’s mission was to improve the lives of the world’s 1B adult smokers. Meanwhile, lawsuits claimed Juul planted the seeds for a youth addiction epidemic that would make nicotine cool again after years of historic declines in cigarette smoking. They claim Juul purposely designed its stylish, flash-drive-like devices and flavored nicotine e-liquids to appeal to teenagers. In 2019, about 27.5% of high school students and 10.5% of middle-school students said they had vaped some sort of e-cigarette in the past month. As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned many flavored vaping products that could appeal to teenagers, while Juul paid over $3B to settle lawsuits.
