Juul suspends U.S. sales of most sweet flavors

San Francisco company making pullbacks amid criticism over rise in vaping by teens

Juul Labs, the embattled San Francisco vaping company, is suspending U.S. sales of most sweet flavors pending a Food and Drug Administration review, the ecigarette maker said Thursday.

Flavored ecigarettes are particularly attractive to teens, whose use of ecigarettes has surged. Underage vaping has raised huge public health issues and triggered lawsuits, investigations and public outcry.

Juul, the nation’s largest ecigarette maker, valued at $38 billion, said it will cease sales of mango, creme, fruit and cucumber flavors. Juul already stopped selling most of its flavored pods, other than mint, in U.S. brickandmortar stores in November, only offering them via the company’s website, which it says uses strict ageverification controls.

Juul will continue to sell mint and menthol flavors, which tobacco analysts estimate accounted for 58% of Juul’s $3.3 billion in U.S. retail sales for the 12 months ending in August. It will also continue to sell unflavored tobacco pods.

President Trump last month called for a federal ban on flavored ecigarettes.

The move is among several pullbacks initiated by new CEO K.C. Crosthwaite, who also ceased all Juul’s broadcast, print and digital advertising in the U.S.; suspended support of Proposition C, a San Francisco ballot initiative to overturn the city’s firstinthenation ban on ecigarette sales; and stopped lobbying the administration on flavor guidance.

“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,” Crosthwaite said in a statement.

Juul emphasizes that its goal is to help smokers switch to vaping, rather than to get people who do not use tobacco products to take up ecigarettes.