Juul suspends sales of online-only flavors

Juul Labs, under fire by critics who blame its products for a surge in youth vaping, announced Thursday it is suspending online sales of mango, crème, fruit and cucumber flavors.

Those flavors, which helped fuel the popularity of the e-cigarette giant, have been available only through its website since late last year. Three other flavors — mint, menthol and tobacco — will still be sold online and in retail outlets. The company said it is reviewing whether to suspend sales of mint and menthol flavors.

The change is a result, the company said in a statement, of a broad, ongoing review of Juul’s practices and policies by new chief executive officer K.C. Crosthwaite. The former Altria executive became Juul’s CEO in late September, after Kevin Burns stepped down.

Crosthwaite said he wanted to “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.”

Last month, President Donald Trump announced the Food and Drug Administration would ban all flavored e-cigarettes — except for those constituted to taste like tobacco — in an effort to stem the increase in youth vaping. Health authorities also have been worried about the emergence of a mysterious vaping-related lung disease. Most, but not all, of the people who have fallen ill have used illicit THC, health authorities say.

The FDA has not yet released its plan to prohibit flavors. As described by officials last month, it would “clear the market” of most flavored products. The items then would not be allowed back on the market until — and if — the agency authorized them.

Juul, which has said it opposes youth use of its products, nevertheless finds itself at the center of a storm over youth vaping. Late last year, under pressure from federal regulators, Juul agreed to stop selling most sweet and fruity products in retail outlets and instead sell them only on its website with stepped-up age verification. Those are the products that now won’t be sold at all. But data released last month showed that the mint and menthol flavors that Juul still sells in stores became increasingly popular over the last year among young people.

The company said Thursday that the action involving online sales was the latest step to try to improve relations with regulators and society at large. Earlier, it suspended broadcast, print, and digital product advertising in the United States, stopped actively supporting an effort to San Francisco to overturn that city’s flavored tobacco ban and said it would refrain from lobbying the administration on its planned flavor ban.

The company said it is still evaluating which flavored products it will submit to the FDA for approval. It said it believes the use of flavored products, coupled with strict measures to combat underage use, can play an important role in helping adults stop smoking.

“We continue to review our policies and practices in advance of FDA’s flavor guidance and have not made any final decisions,” a spokesman said.

Given the lack of trust in the ecigarette industry, the company said it believes that the FDA authorization process is the best way to determine whether the items will benefit public health — the standard the agency will use in approving new products.

Meanwhile, a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 52 percent of the public supports a ban on the sale of fruit- and other flavored e-cigarettes, while 44 percent oppose it.

The poll found that more than 80 percent of adults say they believe teenagers who would otherwise not smoke cigarettes are using flavored vaping products. At the same time, more than 30 percent of adults said they believe ecigarettes are a safer alternative for tobacco smokers who are trying to quit.