Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
To fight FDA claims that Juul has led the teen vaping epidemic, the e-cig mammoth has announced a new POS age-verification system that will require all Juul retailers to comply with by May 2021.
And, as The Wall Street Journal first reported, the vape giant is offering $100m in incentives to entice retailers to get on board.
No more (vape) smoke and mirrors
Juul dodged a nuclear bomb last year when the FDA decided to ban menthol cigarettes instead of flavored e-cigs to reduce teen smoking.
Juul promised it would work harder to keep vapes away from youngsters, but, a month later, an unexpected partnership with cigarette giant Altria convinced the FDA Juul was only blowing smoke.
The FDA threatened an all-out war on Juul and the vape industry at large — which served as a massive financial headache to both the vape-stape and Philip Morris’ parent company.
Now Juul is finally understanding how serious the FDA is about keeping their product out the mouths of today’s yutes (sick My Cousin Vinny ref).
But it’s not going to be easy
The Retail Access Control Standards program (RACS) is built to block the purchase of any Juul product until the retailer scans an official government ID, while also limiting each purchase to a max of one vaporizer and 4 refill packs at a time.
The incentives come because while some retailers with newer POS systems may only require a software update, others will need to update their hardware, which can be expensive and difficult.
Juul says 40k stores, including some major convenience store chains, are already on board. The company plans to stop selling to retailers who don’t comply by the 2021 deadline.
