Reports indicate that Juul Labs, maker of the Juul e-cigarettes, has confirmed its plans to stop the sale of most of its flavored vaping pods across retail stores. Apparently, the firm has also decided to stop all of its social media advertisements and promotions. This decision comes at a time when the government looks ready to be applying even more scrutiny to the company and its likely targeting of kids.
As per the action plan which has been posted on Juul’s website, the company will not be fulfilling orders from the retailers who wish to stock its mango, cucumber, creme and fruit flavored Juul pods. The company will, however, keep selling its tobacco, mint and menthol flavored pods, since these pods replicate a standard cigarette’s experience.
Further from the reports, Juul’s website will be the only platform for selling the lineup of the sweeter flavors, and it will implement an age verification system for limiting sales to customers aged 21 years or older. Customers will have to provide their name, permanent address, date of birth and last four digits of the social security number to purchase the flavored pods.
Supposedly, the provided information will be then verified by a third-party source and will further be cross-checked with public records for confirming the age of buyers. The company said that it would allow other retailers to sell the products again if they could comply with a stern verification process similar to Juul.
The e-cigarette maker will pull out its presence from social media, in addition to shutting sales of flavored pods in retail stores. Juul Labs is closing its Instagram and Facebook accounts. The company will also limit its YouTube and Twitter presence to non-promotional communications, as well as work with social media companies for removing its content targeted towards underage users.