Washington, D.C. -Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, sent a letter to JUUL Labs regarding the company’s failure to produce documents requested by the Subcommittee and warning that further noncompliance could result in the issuance of a subpoena.
“JUUL’s record is woefully inadequate and appears to directly contradict the sworn testimony of your Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, James Monsees, at our hearing in July," wrote Chairman Krishnamoorthi.
During the Subcommittee’s hearing on July 25, 2019, Monsees testified that JUUL is “committed to cooperating with this Committee, state attorneys general, and other officials who wish to examine our practices, and we are dedicated to learning from our mistakes and not repeating them. In doing so, we hope to earn the trust of this Committee, Congress, our regulators, our customers, and the American public."
“The Subcommittee first requested documents from JUUL more than three months ago," wrote Chairman Krishnamoorthi. “Yet, you have made only two productions during that entire time-one set of apparently prepackaged documents that was already provided to state Attorneys General and another set of documents that included nothing but publicly available scientific studies."
JUUL has failed to fully comply with requests made in both the Subcommittee’s letter on June 7, 2019, and its hearing on July 25, 2019, during which Monsees and JUUL’s Chief Administrative Officer, Ashley Gould, were asked to produce additional documents, including:
* the list of schools that received funding from JUUL to implement programming to prevent teen vaping, and which of those schools used the JUUL curriculum;
* the list of grants made to programs that were focused on youth prevention or wellness;
* the contract between JUUL and Altria relating to Altria’s purchase of 35% of JUUL; and
* the list of JUUL’s limited SKU launches introduced between Feb. 2, 2016 and the present, and when those products stopped being sold.
Chairman Krishnamoorthi requested compliance with the Subcommittee’s request by Oct. 1, 2019, warning that if the company fails to do so, the Subcommittee will be forced to consider alternative means of obtaining compliance, including compulsory process.
Background:
* June 7, 2019: Chairman Krishnamoorthi launched an investigation into the role that JUUL played in the youth e-cigarette epidemic.
* July 24 and 25, 2019: The Subcommittee held two days of hearings examining JUUL’s role in the youth e-cigarette epidemic, uncovering significant new evidence of wrongdoing by JUUL.
* July 25, 2019: Chairman Krishnamoorthi released a supplemental memo based on information gathered to date in its investigation.
* September 9, 2019: The FDA issued a warning letter to JUUL just days after Chairman Krishnamoorthi urged the FDA to evaluate admissions and statements made by JUUL representatives under oath before the Subcommittee.
* Sept. 11, 2019: The Trump Administration announced plans to ban flavored e-cigarettes following information uncovered by the Subcommittee’s investigation.
