Minnesota suit against e-cigarette maker Juul goes to trial

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is slated to lead off opening statements expected for Tuesday in his state's lawsuit against Juul Labs – marking the first time any of the thousands of cases against the e-cigarette maker over its alleged marketing to young people is going to play out in a courtroom.

Minnesota sued Juul in 2019, accusing the San Francisco-based company of unlawfully targeting young people with its products to get a new generation addicted to nicotine. Ellison has declined to put a dollar figure on how much money the state is seeking in damages and civil penalties. But he said when he announced the lawsuit that it could be in the ballpark with Minnesota's landmark $7.1 billion settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998.

Juul has faced thousands of lawsuits nationwide but most have settled, including 39 with other states and U.S. territories. Minnesota added tobacco industry giant Altria, which formerly owned a minority stake in Juul, as a co-defendant in 2020. Altria completed its divestiture this month and says it effectively lost its $12.8 billion investment. A few days later, Altria announced a $2.75 billion investment in rival electronic cigarette startup NJOY.

“We will prove how Juul and Altria deceived and hooked a generation of Minnesota youth on their products, causing both great harm to the public and great expense to the State to remediate that harm,” Ellison said in a statement.