Altria Group said Wednesday it’s going to pay $235 million to settle at the least 6,000 lawsuits accusing it of fueling the teenager vaping epidemic through its previous investment in e-cigarette maker Juul Labs.
The agreement ends nearly all litigation brought against the Marlboro cigarette maker over Juul by governments and individuals across america.
This got here shortly after the San Francisco Public School District finished presenting its case against the corporate in a jury trial that may now be shortened.
Sarah London, certainly one of the plaintiff’s lead attorneys within the dispute, said in an announcement that the deal would “provide extraordinary and truly significant relief to youth, parents and government organizations across the country”.
Altria expects to record a pre-tax charge of $235 million within the second quarter of 2023 and intends to exclude it from adjusted earnings per share.
“While we proceed to consider the claims against us are without merit, we consider this settlement avoids the uncertainty and value of a lengthy legal process and is in the very best interests of our shareholders,” said Murray Garnick, Altria’s executive vp and general counsel.
The corporate in March announced it had relinquished its 35% stake in Juul in exchange for licensing a few of Juul’s mental property.
In December, his stake in Juul was valued at $250 million, down from $12.8 billion in 2018.
The plaintiffs within the lawsuits alleged that Juul marketed sweet flavors and flashy social media campaigns to teenagers.
They said Altria helped with the strategy by allowing Juul to leverage its sales force and put its products alongside the Altria on the shelves.
Juul had previously settled a lot of the cases against him, paying greater than $1 billion to 48 states and territories and $1.7 billion to individuals and native government entities.