A company that makes e-cigarettes has agreed a settlement of US $462 million (€420 million) with seven US states over claims that it marketed its products to minors.

Juul Labs said that it had now made settlements worth $1 billion with 47 US states and territories.

The latest agreement involved New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and the District of Columbia.

The company said that the terms of the settlements provided financial resources to further combat under-age use of its products – including funding programmes to help young people to give up vaping.

‘Stringent restrictions’

The states said that the agreement “places the most stringent restrictions on Juul’s marketing, sales, and distribution practices in order to protect and prevent minors from under-age vaping”.

“Juul lit a nationwide public health crisis by putting addictive products in the hands of minors and convincing them that it’s harmless; today they are paying the price for the harm they caused,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.

States had alleged that the company had used deceptive and misleading marketing to appeal to young people.

Juul Labs said that the move reflected “our current business practices, which were implemented as part of our company-wide reset in the fall of 2019”.

Since then, it said, under-age use of its products had dropped by 95%.