• Posted July 18, 2025

FDA Approves Juul E-Cigs for Sale, Years After Ban Attempt

After years of legal battles and health concerns, Juul Labs has the go-ahead to sell some of its electronic cigarettes in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that it will allow Juul to market its e-cigarette device and tobacco and menthol refill cartridges.

The agency said the products may help adult smokers quit traditional cigarettes.

The FDA decision comes after years of back-and-forth with the company, which was blamed for a rise in teen vaping.

“Americans who use nicotine deserve an orderly, reliable market in which they can confidently choose from a wide array of smokefree nicotine products that are high-quality, innovative, backed by rigorous research, made in FDA-inspected manufacturing facilities, and marketed and sold responsibly,” Juul CEO K.C. Crosthwaite said in a statement.

Still, the FDA stressed that approval doesn’t mean the products are safe, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told The Washington Post.

The agency will “closely monitor compliance with robust restrictions to limit youth exposure to marketing, and will act appropriately if [the] company fails to comply with requirements,” the spokesperson added.

Juul’s slim e-cigarettes became popular in 2015, especially among teens, in part to their wide choice of fruity flavored cartridges. But the company faced major backlash and lawsuits, with critics accusing it of marketing to kids.

The FDA ordered Juul’s products off the market in 2022, but the ban was put on hold while the company challenged it in court. In 2024, the FDA reversed the ban, but it didn’t fully authorize sales until now.

Juul, which narrowly avoided bankruptcy after the 2022 ban, has since settled lawsuits for billions of dollars. The company says it is working to prevent minors using the products.

“It is a big step in the wrong direction to authorize sales of the product that was responsible for this public health crisis in the first place,” Yolonda Richardson, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told The Post.

Harold Wimmer, president of the American Lung Association, told The Post he was especially concerned about Juul’s menthol pods staying on the market. He called for a full ban on all flavored tobacco products.

A recent survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about 1.6 million U.S. middle and high school students use e-cigarettes. Nearly 90% said they use flavored ones.

While teen vaping has fallen off since peaking in 2019, health officials say flavored vapes — many of them illegally sold — remain a serious concern.

Juul’s authorization dovetails with a July 14 study out of Australia that found vaping might be more effective than traditional nicotine replacement therapies in helping people quit smoking.

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more on vaping.

SOURCE: The Washington Post, July 17, 2025