WASHINGTON -- House Democrats blasted e-cigarette industry leader JUUL Labs on Thursday for its "deceptive" marketing practices they said were reminiscent of regular cigarette makers' advertising in years past.
During the nearly 3-hour hearing of a subcommittee for the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday, Democrats grilled JUUL executives about the company's social media "influencer" campaign; education and wellness programs, including a summer camp for third graders; and its attempts to evade FDA regulation.
"Big Tobacco preyed on generations of America's youth," and now JUUL is picking up where the industry left off, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), said in his opening remarks.
Krishnamoorthi pledged to hold accountable anyone who "knowingly put children in harm's way."
In 2018, 3.6 million high school and middle school students used e-cigarettes -- an increase of 1.5 million from 2017, the chairman noted. That same year, JUUL's market share of the e-cigarette industry grew from 24% to 76%, he said.
Altria, the parent company for Philip Morris, now owns more than a third of JUUL, as several Democrats noted.
James Monsees, JUUL's co-founder and chief product officer, defended his company's mission to help adult smokers transition away from combustible cigarettes.
"We never wanted any non-nicotine users, and certainly nobody underage, to ever use JUUL products," said Monsees during his opening statement, but he acknowledged the presence of data showing that underage Americans are in fact using JUUL.
The company "has no higher priority" than stopping such use, he said.
"JUUL Labs isn't Big Tobacco," he argued.
Democrats heartily disagreed.
'Borrowing' Big Tobacco's Brand
Krishnamoorthi, during questioning, asked Monsees whether he had reviewed Stanford's online library of cigarette advertising and found it "very helpful," as a witness at the previous day's hearing, Robert Jackler, MD, a Stanford University professor and surgeon, had testified.
Monsees said Jackler "may have misheard" his comments and that he used the library to understand the mistakes tobacco companies had made and avoid them.
A staffer displayed a poster showing a Marlboro package next to the original design of the JUUL product with a similar red and black design.
When asked whether the products looked similar, Monsees said he did not think so. "The last thing we want is to be confused with any major tobacco company," Monsees said.
Krishnamoorthi said JUUL entered a settlement with Philip Morris agreeing to remove all JUUL branding that uses "triangle and diamond shapes," according to board meeting notes from 2016.
The chairman requested the documents from the settlement, adding that they would be subpoenaed if necessary.
Targeting Young Consumers
Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) asked about the company's social media efforts, noting that kids as young as 13 can open Instagram accounts, implying that this strategy targeted youth.
Responding to concerns from Congress over a possible social media "influencer" campaign, in a June 21 letter, JUUL named four people as influencers and said it "did not have a traditional celebrity or influencer program."
Monsees affirmed this.
Hill then pointed to a March 2015 contract with Britt Creative Group, which referred to the "JUUL Launch Influencer Seeding Program," which described efforts to identify 280 influencers in Los Angeles and New York. She noted other emails and documents, including one suggesting that JUUL had identified 29,000 influencers.
"Do you still maintain that you didn't have an influencer program?"
Monsees said the discussion was moving to "territory I'm not completely familiar with."
Hill suggested Monsees respond in writing to the question.
Averting Regulation
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) asked Monsees whether he was told by his lawyers that the careful wording in a JUUL advertisement, which used the word "quit" multiple times as well as "switch" (referring to e-cigarettes) would allow JUUL to avoid claiming to be a smoking cessation device.
Monsees said JUUL never claimed to be a cessation product.
"Are you allowed to say that your products are healthier than cigarettes?" she asked.
"I believe in these chambers, we are allowed -- ," Monsees said, before Tlaib cut him off.
"If you say that your products help people quit ... cigarettes, the FDA would regulate you, and if you say your products are safer, the FDA would regulate you," she said.
Yet, according again to documents obtained by the committee, JUUL created a marketing team aimed at persuading employers and insurers that JUUL would lower their healthcare costs.
Asked why employers or insurers would consider such a partnership unless JUUL had suggested it was a smoking cessation tool, Monsees said employers would consider "all options to save people's lives."
JUUL's Youth Anti-Vaping Campaign
During a second panel, Ashley Gould, chief administration officer for JUUL Labs, Inc., was asked about JUUL's tobacco prevention curriculum.
Hill said JUUL paid the Richmond, California, Police Athletic League $89,000 to work with youth ages 12-17 who faced suspension for e-cigarette or marijuana use. She noted that JUUL had total control over the information these "potential customers," as Hill called the students, received.
Hill also asked, seemingly incredulous: "Did JUUL honestly sponsor a summer camp for third graders?"
The camp was at Baltimore's Freedom and Democracy Charter School, Hill said.
In exchange for the approximately $134,000 JUUL paid the school, it agreed to share student data including surveys, journals, and activity logs and pre- and post-test scores with JUUL.
All of the grants JUUL distributed focused on "youth prevention or wellness," Gould said. Regarding the question of the camp and data collection, she said she would need to look at any one contract for details.
"Paying to access data for kids as young as eight is alarming ... I can only imagine the possible use of that data in the hands of a Big Tobacco company like JUUL," Hill said.
At another JUUL-focused hearing on Wednesday two high school students testified that a JUUL representative had presented a seminar in school and characterized JUUL products as healthy.
Gould said all of its educational programs and sponsorships have since ended.
Republicans Defend JUUL
Throughout the hearing, tobacco-state Republicans matched Democrats' criticism with praise.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) applauded JUUL executives for delivering over 180,000 pages of unredacted documents to the committee, and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said that while he too worried about youth vaping he's also concerned that "prematurely over-regulating" companies like JUUL could undermine smoking cessation efforts.
Republicans repeatedly asked Monsees to explain the company's efforts to prevent youth vaping.
In addition to voluntarily removing flavored products from the stores, products sold online require two-factor authorization including an ID scan and the last four digits of the individual's Social Security number. The name and phone number must match those on the person's driver's license.
JUUL also supports legislation to increase the age of tobacco use to 21 and has paid independent companies to run studies that have shown "about a two times improvement in cessation," Monsees said. Participants in the study may continue using e-cigarettes, but they've stopped using cigarettes, he noted.