Juul ban

For close to a decade after their launch in the 2000s, e-cigarettes, vapes, and other electronic nicotine and tobacco products were largely unregulated products ...

The differences between Juul and its competitors are minimal at best—especially now that the sweet and fruity-flavored products once synonymous with Juul have also been banned by the FDA. Juul is reportedly being hit with a ban because it was the first to get caught and will be made an example of. Amazon leverages its ever-growing empire in market after market to push down working conditions, crush competitors, and degrade the quality of products generally. Or take Amazon. As a result of one problem it created (how to deliver things faster), the lives of millions have been warped to fit its needs. Why is so much energy spent on preserving and tinkering with various technologies despite their harm, as opposed to simply saying they must be abolished because the costs are too much to bear? In fact, while the FTC filed an antitrust complaint against Juul alleging Altria purchased its stake in Juul with an agreement to not compete with Juul, it was dismissed by a judge this year. Startups that offer financial products and platforms as a way to escape poverty or achieve financial independence, but more closely resemble casinos that impoverish traders before herding them right back inside. In 2018, the company (which then controlled nearly 80 percent of the e-cig market) caught the FDA’s attention thanks in part to the revelation that it was targeting minors with advertising on children’s websites as well as with the introduction of fruity, candy, dessert, and other sweet flavors. Also no, because Juul’s competitors—Reynolds American Inc. and NJOY Holdings—got approval in October 2021 and April 2022 to put their tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes on the market. All of it appears to have been for nought: while Juul will appeal the decision, if approved it’ll lock the company out of the market where most of its sales are. In Juul's case, it advertised its products to children before pivoting and advertising its products as a way for adults to quit smoking. In the meantime, tobacco giant Altria Group (the parent company of Phillip Morris) acquired a 35 percent stake in Juul for $12.8 billion in 2018. Regulations slowly caught up over the years—the passage of the Phillip Morris-backed 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gave the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products, but also grandfathered in pre-existing tobacco products and effectively protected existing tobacco companies from competing against alternatives—culminating in 2016, when the FDA published a rule classifying electronic nicotine delivery systems (e-cigs, vape pens, etc.) as tobacco products.