The withdrawal of all non-tobacco-flavored products by the U.S. government will affect sweet, fruity and mint-flavored e-cigarettes, which will have a serious impact on Juul. More than 80% of Juul’s product sales come from these banned tastes.
American media quoted sources as saying that Juul Labs, the US e-cigarette giant, was discussing internally. Although Juul has decided to support a ban on most flavors of e-cigarettes, there are still differences over the flavors of ment and menthol.
Sources revealed that insiders of the company wanted to lobby the Trump government to make exceptions for both tastes. They argue that if Juul’s goal is to help smokers, menthol-flavored e-cigarettes should be provided.
FDA officials have previously said they should not restrict the sale of menthol-flavored e-cigarettes as a relatively harmful alternative to cigarettes.
On Wednesday, Alex Azar, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, cited preliminary federal survey data that showed the popularity of menthol and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes among adolescents has increased dramatically this year. Data show that nearly 28% of high school students surveyed this year reported using e-cigarettes at least once in the past 30 days, up from 21% last year.
The FDA’s plan is to remove all flavored e-cigarette products from the market unless they taste similar to regular cigarettes. Sources revealed that tobacco-flavored electronic cigarettes accounted for less than 20% of Juul’s sales in the United States. The most popular e-cigarette flavors of the brand are mango and mint.
Juul is believed to be responsible for the massive use of electronic cigarettes by American teenagers. The FDA, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), several congressional committees and attorneys general of several states are investigating the company. Juul is also pushing for overseas expansion. The company recently issued $785 million in convertible bonds to support overseas markets. Juul announced his entry into the Chinese market, the 19th country the company has entered.
In the first half of 2019, Juul earned $1.27 billion worldwide and more than $100 million in markets outside the United States, according to sources.
Juul voluntarily stopped selling sweet and fruit-flavored e-cigarettes in physical stores last year, but continues to sell them through websites. Juul’s website designed an age control system. Subsequently, the company also called on regulators to take action against counterfeit and competing products.
Several investors in Juul said this week that they welcomed tighter supervision of the industry, pointing out that it could eliminate counterfeits, targetting child users, and potentially harmful products, while allowing regulated products to continue to exist.
