The FDA ordered Juul Labs to stop selling its products in the US because the agency couldn't determine if the products posed a health risk.
The company's products are among the most popular in the industry. Is the F.D.A. ruling that they are no longer for sale a sign that they are no longer for use?
Juul asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to stay the F.D.A.'s order.
The agency's decision was motivated by political forces that wanted to blame the company for the youth vaping crisis. According to the filing, the F.D.A. decided to ban Juul because of the political pressure from Congress.
The F.D.A. did not cite under the age of 18 for its decision to ban Juul. The agency said that there wasn't enough evidence to support the claim that the product prevents nicotine from being absorbed into the body.
The F.D.A. could not enforce the sales ban on Juul products if the stay was granted. This is not Juul's only option at this time for a stay, and the company is trying all short-term options to keep selling its products.
As news of the ruling spread, some consumers were able to purchase the company's tobacco and nicotine products.
The F.D.A. ordered Juul to stop selling or distributing its products on Thursday. The company no longer sells its products on its website. Unless the company is granted a stay that allows it to keep its products on the market, the items will be removed from shelves.
The agency's decision had already had its intended effect, according to the court filing.
The F.D.A. said that individual consumers wouldn't be subject to penalties.
The F.D.A. doesn't want a ban on all products. The agency has been given the authority to review applications for millions of products. Vuse Alto, the market leader, is one of the products it has approved. The applications for a million other products have not been approved.
The agency must consider whether a product is a viable alternative to tobacco that can help cigarette smokers quit and whether the product's benefits to public health outweigh its harms.
Vuse Alto was the top-selling brand in the United States over the past 12 weeks, earning $414 million in sales and accounting for 34% of the overall e-cig market. The market share of Juul was 33 percent. The next best-selling brand, NJoy Ace, accounted for less than 2% of the market.
According to Euromonitor, the cigarette industry in the United States brought in over $100 billion in revenue last year, compared with over $7 billion for e-liquids. According to Euromonitor, cigarette sales will fall by 13 percent over the next six years, while the growth of e-liquids will be 22 percent. According to regulatory filings, Altria's sales fell last year.
The number of people who smoke traditional cigarettes in the US has been declining for decades.
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