E-Cigarette Lawsuits

As of November 2024, there were Juul lawsuits from around the United States combined in multidistrict litigation (MDL), MDL 2913 under Judge William Orrick in the Northern District of California. The cases represent both class action lawsuits and individual personal injury cases filed in four states.

Our legal partners are no longer accepting these claims, and this page contains historical information about Juul litigation. However, we will continue to update this page with any key updates in the litigation.

The timeline below provides information for several Juul settlements and litigation updates.

Juul and Altria have settled most claims in the MDL, and the MDL remains open until any remaining cases are resolved. Some plaintiffs who elected not to accept the settlement also remain in the MDL.

“Without admission of fault or liability, Altria entered into Settlement Agreements with the Class Action, Personal Injury, and Government Entity Plaintiffs to resolve the vast majority of the remaining cases in this MDL,” Judge Orrick said in Case Management Order 23 issued on July 9, 2024.

Many e-cig lawsuits target Juul Labs Inc. for intentionally marketing its vaping products to teens and deceiving customers about the addictiveness of vaping. The number of e-cigarette lawsuits has been growing alongside rapidly increased e-cigarette use among teens and young people.

The U.S. Surgeon General has said there is an “e-cigarette epidemic among youth.” Most e-cig lawsuits have been filed by young adults or parents of underage children who were unaware of the side effects of vaping.

Many people who filed lawsuits say they became addicted to using e-cigarettes which led to or worsened their conditions. They claim they were unaware that vape fluids contained high levels of nicotine, a highly addictive substance. Others also filed lawsuits after they were injured when their e-cigarette exploded or caught fire.

Big Tobacco Companies Named in E-Cigarette Lawsuits

Juul lawsuits also name Altria and Philip Morris, the Big Tobacco companies that make and market Marlboro and other tobacco cigarettes. Altria purchased 35 percent of Juul in December 2018.

Other e-cigarette lawsuits not included in the Juul mass litigation may also name other e-cigarette makers with ties to tobacco companies. These may include Imperial Brands, which markets Blu e-cigs, and British American Tobacco, which markets four e-cigarettes including Vuse and Vype.

In addition to deceptive marketing and teen addiction lawsuits, other e-cig users have filed lawsuits that claim Juul caused lung disease, seizures, strokes and other injuries.

We’ve listed a few lawsuits filed for various injuries claimed against Juul below. Most of the lawsuits that settled are linked to teen addiction and deceptive marketing.

Lung Disease

A pair of college students from Alabama filed a lawsuit in 2019 claiming they developed serious lung disorders from vaping Juul e-cigarettes.

Elizabeth Swearingen was a 19-year-old student at the University of Alabama. She had been a cross-country athlete in high school. But the lawsuit claims she “now has trouble breathing during the simplest of tasks.”

John Thomas Via Peavy was a 19-year-old student at Auburn University who had been using Juul e-cigarettes since he was 17. The lawsuit claimed he suffered “severe breathing problems after using Juul.” The complaint says Peavy continues to have chest-congestion and a loss of appetite.

The complaint claimed that both Swearingen and Peavy unintentionally swallowed vape fluids while using Juul.

Seizures

In April 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began investigating reports of seizures related to vaping. Most of the reports involved teens and young adults and people began filing lawsuits after the FDA announcement.

Parents of a 15-year-old Florida girl filed a lawsuit against Juul Labs, Altria Group Inc. and Philip Morris USA Inc. in 2019 after the teen suffered seizures they blamed on nicotine ingestion from vaping.

Erin and Jared NesSmith claimed their daughter became addicted to Juul e-cigarettes and suffered seizures. Juul vape pods each contain as much nicotine as a pack of tobacco cigarettes. The lawsuit claims she unintentionally swallowed e-cig fluids while using Juul.

Seizures are a known side effect of nicotine toxicity. But many teens don’t realize nicotine is an e-cigarette danger. A 2019 study in the journal Pediatrics found that 40 percent of teens did not even realize the vape fluids they used contained nicotine.

The FDA found many of the seizure reports it examined involved teens and young adults. Luka Kinard of North Carolina suffered seizures after vaping the equivalent of 80 tobacco cigarettes per day. He was 14 years old at the time and had to check into rehab to break his nicotine habit, according to a report in the Greensboro News & Record.

Stroke

Maxwell Berger sued Juul Labs in 2019 claiming his two-Juul-pods-a-day habit led to his massive stroke before he turned 20. Vaping two of the pods would mean he was ingesting as much nicotine as someone who smoked 40 tobacco cigarettes a day.

Berger said in his complaint that he started using a Juul e-cigarette while still a senior in high school in 2015. He claimed that two years later he was so addicted to nicotine that he was using the device every 10 minutes.

He suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke in July 2017. Hemorrhagic strokes can occur when a blood vessel bursts near the brain. Blood builds up in the skull, putting pressure on the brain and damaging it.

Berger’s lawsuit claimed he needed three brain surgeries and spent 100 days in the hospital as a result. The complaint said he suffers paralysis on his left side, speech impairment and loss of half his vision in each eye.

A 2019 study presented at the International Stroke Conference found e-cigarette users had higher risks of stroke and heart problems than non-users. The researchers found e-cig users had a 71 percent higher stroke risk, 59 percent higher heart attack risk and a 40 percent higher heart disease risk.

A former senior vice president at Juul sued the company in October 2019, claiming he was fired after he raised alarms over 1 million contaminated, mint-flavored Juul pods shipped to retailers and consumers. The lawsuit did not specify the exact type of contamination.

Siddharth Breja’s lawsuit claimed Juul “refused to recall those contaminated pods or even issue a product health and safety warning.” It also claimed the company sold expired products over his repeated protests.

The company’s former CEO, Kevin Burns, told CBS This Morning in September 2019 that Juul’s products were legal and tested for toxicity. He said Juul would not sell a dangerous product.

Ultimately, Breja lost his lawsuit in July 2023 and was ordered to pay some of Juul’s legal fees.