Case Overview
Keller Rohrback, along with Miner, Barnhill & Galland and the Anchorage, Alaska office of Dorsey & Whitney, LLP, serves as outside counsel to the State of Alaska in litigation relating to the youth vaping crisis. On November 24, 2020, the State filed a complaint against JUUL Labs, Inc., Altria Group, Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris USA and a major investor in JUUL Labs, Inc., and Altria subsidiaries, alleging that these Defendants created and maintained a dramatic rise in youth use of e-cigarettes and resulting public health crisis.
Plaintiff the State of Alaska alleges that Defendants:
• Violated the Alaska Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protections Act which prohibits minors’ access to tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, by deceptively, unfairly, and unlawfully encouraging minors to use tobacco products;
• Created and maintained a public nuisance under Alaska law by creating a public health crisis of youth vaping and thereby interfering with a right common to the general public, which includes public health, safety, peace, comfort, or convenience;
• Were negligent by failing in their duty to the State and its citizens to exercise due care in the marketing, advertisement, promotion, and sale of e-cigarette products. This includes a duty not to cause foreseeable harm to others by increasing nicotine usage among the youth of Alaska;
• Entered into a conspiracy to violate the statute and the common law by: (1) maintaining the market for JLI’s product among Alaska’s youth, and (2) coordinating a message to the public and regulators that JUUL e-cigarettes are designed only for adults as an off-ramp from cigarettes and denying promotion and sales of JUUL to youth, all to conceal that JLI and Altria were working together to carry out (1).
The following entities are collectively referred to above as Defendants:
• JUUL Labs, Inc. (“JLI”) (formerly known as PAX Labs, Inc.); and
• Altria Defendants: Altria Group, Inc.; Altria Client Services LLC; Altria Group Distribution Company; Nu Mark LLC; and Nu Mark Innovations, Ltd.
In the News
Alaska Seeks Justice Against JUUL and Altria for Their Role in Causing the Youth E-Cigarette Crisis – 11/24/20
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