Vaping Giant is Sued for Poor Age Verification Practices
Vaping Giant is Sued for Poor Age Verification Practices
California has filed a lawsuit against the vaping manufacturer, Juul. They allege that Juul used age verification deceptively to sell their products to minors. This is not the first time that Juul has had to answer the charge of marketing to underage consumers. Their home city banned the sale of vaping products in July 2019 and a 19-year-old sued the company for running deceptive youth marketing campaigns.
Juul Adopts Age Verification
In August 2019 Juul took measures to quell growing criticism of their marketing techniques. The CEO made a statement urging young people not to purchase vaping products, and Juul vendors were given financial incentives to install age verification to curb illegal sales.
California claims that the age verification installed by Juul was ineffectual because the ‘ruleset’ supplied to the software vendor Veratad did not require a ‘full address match’. This led to numerous shipments of vaping products to customers with fraudulent names and addresses.
Juul’s Digital Marketing Database
The allegations further suggest that Juul continues to knowingly market its products to minors. California claims that the emails of minors who attempted but failed the age verification process, were stored on their digital marketing list. This implies that, despite knowing that these addresses belonged to minors, the company nevertheless sent them marketing material.
Is Juul Fuelling a Teen Epidemic?
Juul’s vaping products have experienced phenomenal success in the US. Over 2 million 13-18 year olds use e-cigarettes and, until recently, there was scant awareness that they contain highly addictive nicotine.
A wave of vaping-related illnesses and deaths across the US has raised the profile of this issue. 13 states have now banned the sales of vaping products, and Juul has stopped selling the flavours that were most popular with young people.
About AgeChecked
AgeChecked provides online age verification for websites that sell age-restricted goods and services.
