• Suspended all broadcast, print, and digital product advertising in the U.S.
• Ceased active support of Proposition C in San Francisco
• Is refraining from lobbying the Administration on its draft flavor guidance and will fully support and comply with the final policy when effective

Today, Crosthwaite announced another action resulting from the company’s review — the suspension of the sale of our non-tobacco, non-menthol-based flavors (Mango, Creme, Fruit, and Cucumber) in the U.S., pending FDA review. 

Given the lack of trust in our industry, we believe the FDA’s PMTA process and its “appropriate for the protection of the public health” standard are the best ways to assess the role these products can play in helping adult smokers move away from combustible cigarettes while also being kept out of the hands of youth.

In making the announcement, Crosthwaite said, “We must reset the vapor category by earning the trust of society and working cooperatively with regulators, policymakers, and stakeholders to combat underage use while providing an alternative to adult smokers.”

Until today, our non-tobacco, non-menthol-based flavors (Mango, Creme, Fruit, and Cucumber) were made available by JUUL Labs in the U.S. only at JUUL.com, which has strict age-verification controls.

As we evaluate what products to submit for PMTA, we will continue to develop scientific evidence to support the use of these flavored products, coupled with strict measures to combat underage use, as we believe these products can play an important role in helping adult smokers move away from combustible cigarettes.

The company will continue to refrain from lobbying the Administration on its draft flavor guidance and will fully support and comply with the final policy when effective.

In November 2018, we launched a comprehensive action plan to combat youth usage in order to preserve the potential public-health impact for the 34 million adult smokers in the United States. These actions include:

We strongly support responsible legislation, such as raising the minimum-purchasing age for tobacco products, including vapor products like JUUL, to 21 years of age. We know that obtaining tobacco products from friends or siblings who are of legal age, often high school seniors or recent graduates, is the main contributor to youth access and use.

In November of 2018, we suspended the distribution of Mango, Fruit, Creme, and Cucumber to traditional retail stores. These flavors are only currently available online at www.JUUL.com. Our website includes industry leading age-verification technology to restrict purchases to those 21 and older and limit the amount of product that can be purchased to prevent social-sourcing.

Since we submitted our action plan, we have strengthened our e-commerce platform to further restrict underage and bulk purchases:

• We revised our bulk-purchasing limits to restrict users from purchasing excess quantities of product and reselling to others, potentially youth.
• We implemented two-factor authentication for all new JUUL.com accounts.
• We incorporated facial-recognition technology, requiring a potential purchaser to upload a photo in addition to his or her government-issued identification if their personal information cannot be verified by publicly-available records

We have ramped up our secret-shopper program four-fold – from 500 to 2,000 shops per month – checking against age-verification and bulk-purchasing (2 devices and 5 pod packages per transaction) restrictions, as well as revised our policy and notified retailers that we will penalize them for FDA CMP violations.

We exited our U.S.-based Facebook and Instagram accounts, and we are continuously working to remove inappropriate third-party social media content in partnership with major social media companies. Third-party users generate more than 99 percent of all social media content related to JUUL.

We have started the process to build a robust product tracking system. Ultimately, we will be able to trace a device confiscated from an underage user back through the distribution channel, potentially identifying the retailer that sold the product, and take appropriate action. Additionally, we are moving full-steam ahead with the development of our Bluetooth-connected device that could incorporate user-level access restrictions.

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