--- title: FDA: Juul Illegally Marketed Vapes as Safer Than Cigarettes description: Juul illegally marketed its e-cigarettes as safer than cigarettes, according to a warning letter from the FDA. canonical: https://time.com/5672210/juul-illegal-marketing-fda/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-09T16:09:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T07:20:18.172Z article:section: Health og:title: Juul Illegally Claimed That Its Products Were Safer than Cigarettes, FDA Says og:description: It must correct those violations in 15 days og:url: https://time.com/5672210/juul-illegal-marketing-fda/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c31a68ee04a3b52/698a028fb3fce32ce80c5815/juul-james-monsees.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: JUUL Co-Founder James Monsees Testifies On Company's Role In The Youth Nicotine Epidemic og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Juul Illegally Claimed That Its Products Were Safer than Cigarettes, FDA Says twitter:description: It must correct those violations in 15 days twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c31a68ee04a3b52/698a028fb3fce32ce80c5815/juul-james-monsees.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Juul Illegally Claimed That Its Products Were Safer than Cigarettes, FDA Says  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 9, 2019 4:09 PM UTC  James Monsees, co-founder and chief product officer at JUUL Labs, appears before the House Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee in Washington, D.C. on July 25, 2019. James Monsees, co-founder and chief product officer at JUUL Labs, appears before the House Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee in Washington, D.C. on July 25, 2019.Mark Wilson—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 9, 2019 4:09 PM UTC Juul illegally marketed its [e-cigarettes](https://time.com/5442252/are-e-cigarettes-safe/) as less harmful than tobacco cigarettes, and must find a way to correct that violation, according to [a warning letter](https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/juul-labs-inc-590950-09092019) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). E-cigarettes like Juuls, which heat liquid nicotine instead of burning tobacco, are thought to be less dangerous than cigarettes because they produce fewer cancer-causing chemicals. But “regardless of where products like e-cigarettes fall on the continuum of tobacco product risk, the law is clear that, before marketing tobacco products for reduced risk, companies must demonstrate with scientific evidence that their specific product does in fact pose less risk or is less harmful,” Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless said in[ a statement](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-warns-juul-labs-marketing-unauthorized-modified-risk-tobacco-products-including-outreach-youth) Monday. “JUUL has ignored the law, and very concerningly, has made some of these statements in school to our nation’s youth.” E-cigarettes, including the ones made by Juul, are not currently FDA-approved. Juul has until spring 2020 to apply for approval as a new tobacco product. “We are reviewing the letters and will fully cooperate,” a Juul spokesperson told TIME. The letter requires Juul to submit a plan of correction within 15 business days. If it fails to comply with FDA policy, the agency could resort to fines or injunctions against the company. The warning letter cites several accusations made in a [July Congressional hearing](https://oversight.house.gov/legislation/hearings/examining-juul-s-role-in-the-youth-nicotine-epidemic-part-i) relating to Juul—among them, the allegation that a Juul representative on a school visit told students that the product “was much safer than cigarettes” and “totally safe.” A letter from the CEO posted on Juul’s website also argued that Juul devices “deliver smokers the satisfaction that they want without the combustion and the harm associated with it,” according to the FDA’s statement. The FDA is also investigating Juul’s use of nicotine salts, a formulation that makes nicotine more palatable to consume and may allow users to take in higher doses at a time, and its high nicotine concentrations, which may be particularly addictive. As by far the most popular e-cigarette on the market, Juul has been [at the center of the FDA’s efforts](https://time.com/5413690/fda-juul-investigation/) to curb an [epidemic of underage vaping](https://time.com/5549340/vaping-addiction-treatment/). Last year, the agency carried out an unannounced inspection of its San Francisco headquarters and seized thousands of pages of documents related to its marketing and advertising activity, some of which has been [criticized for illegally targeting youth](http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco%5Fmain/publications/JUUL%5FMarketing%5FStanford.pdf). At the end of 2018, just ahead of [proposed FDA regulations](https://time.com/5550568/fda-e-cigarettes-policy/) to limit the sale of flavored vaping products, Juul elected to stop selling many of its flavored pods in most retail stores, and to suspend its U.S. Instagram and Facebook accounts. The FDA’s warning comes amid mounting reports of [serious lung diseases associated with vaping](https://time.com/5655329/vaping-lung-disease-cdc/). Many cases, however, appear to be related to [vaping marijuana](https://time.com/5670147/vaping-marijuana-lung-disease/), not the nicotine contained in Juul pods. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5672210/juul-illegal-marketing-fda/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5672210/juul-illegal-marketing-fda/"},"headline":"Juul Illegally Claimed That Its Products Were Safer than Cigarettes, FDA Says","datePublished":"2019-09-09T16:09:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T07:20:18.172Z","description":"It must correct those violations in 15 days","url":"https://time.com/5672210/juul-illegal-marketing-fda/","keywords":["Public Health","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c31a68ee04a3b52/698a028fb3fce32ce80c5815/juul-james-monsees.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c31a68ee04a3b52/698a028fb3fce32ce80c5815/juul-james-monsees.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"JUUL Co-Founder James Monsees Testifies On Company's Role In The Youth Nicotine Epidemic","caption":"JUUL Co-Founder James Monsees Testifies On Company's Role In The Youth Nicotine Epidemic","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5672210/juul-illegal-marketing-fda/","name":"Juul Illegally Claimed That Its Products Were Safer than Cigarettes, FDA Says"}}]}] ```