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Juul’s Master Plan to Win the Vape Wars
Rigorously controlled technology — and sheer scale — will help the company triumph in spite of new regulations and aggressive competition
E-cigarette users, lawmakers, and vaping advocates are fuming over new anti-vaping regulations. But one party is oddly at ease with the proposed rules: Juul, the e-cig giant.
After the Food and Drug Administration announced its intent last week to clamp down on flavored e-liquid, Juul, which would theoretically be gutted by the rule, said in a statement that it “strongly agrees with the need for aggressive category-wide action on flavored products.”
It seems counterintuitive, but experts say Juul may actually benefit from stricter regulation. The company’s proprietary technology — a small, self-contained vaping device — could help Juul breeze through the FDA approval process that e-cigarette companies must undergo to receive the agency’s official blessing.
“Juul doesn’t care so much for the same reason that [Marlboro cigarette maker] Philip Morris didn’t care when the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed, prohibiting most flavored cigarettes,” said Kathleen Hoke, a law professor who studies tobacco regulation at the University of Maryland. “They were…
