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Juul Shipped At Least A Million Contaminated Pods, New Lawsuit Says (buzzfeednews.com) 159

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
A former Juul executive is alleging in a lawsuit that the fast-growing startup shipped out 1 million contaminated e-cigarette pods earlier this year -- but did not tell customers or issue a recall. From a report: The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Siddharth Breja, a former senior vice president of global finance who worked at the San Francisco-based company from May 2018 to March 2019. In the lawsuit -- filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California on the same day that Juul confirmed its plans to lay off about 500 people -- Breja claims he was retaliated against for raising concerns about the contaminated shipment. In another instance, Breja says he was worried when the company, in February 2019, wanted to resell pods that were at that point almost one year old. He protested their resale and urged the company to at least include an expiration or "best by" date, or a date of manufacture, on the packaging. The lawsuit claims that then-CEO Kevin Burns shot down that idea, saying, "Half our customers are drunk and vaping like mo-fos, who the fuck is going to notice the quality of our pods."
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Juul Shipped At Least A Million Contaminated Pods, New Lawsuit Says More

Juul Shipped At Least A Million Contaminated Pods, New Lawsuit Says

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  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @12:01PM (#59362286)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by iggymanz ( 596061 )

      you do business with companies that have CEO and execs like that every day, you have no choice. You're typing here on slashdot supported by such.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Whether or not the expiration really matters, the fact the CEO is alleged to have that much contempt for his customers is truly revealing

      You do realize these words have very different meanings, right?

    • Most Executive-types have this way of thinking about people. We're *nothing* but dollar signs. Even the ones who make the products that let them have that job in the first place are just bothersome expenses that they'd replace in a heartbeat if they could. There's the odd good ones, but they get squeezed out by not churning enough profit with their humanitarian views.

    • the fact the CEO is alleged

      I am sensing a contradiction in the Force ...

  • The contaminant ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @12:10PM (#59362314) Homepage

    If you are, like me, curious as to what the contaminant is, the lawsuit does not say which substance it is ...

    From the article:

    Breja alleges that on March 12, in an executive team meeting, he learned that some batches of mint e-liquid had been found to be contaminated. Approximately 250,000 mint refill kits, the equivalent of one million pods, were manufactured with the contaminated e-liquid, shipped to retailers, and sold to customers. The lawsuit does not specify what the batches were allegedly contaminated with.

    Also, another allegation is that Juul ignored pods that are more than 1 year old and refused to put an expiration date:

    In another instance, Breja says he was worried when the company, in February 2019, wanted to resell pods that were at that point almost one year old. He protested their resale and urged the company to at least include an expiration or âoebest byâ date, or a date of manufacture, on the packaging.

    • Re:The contaminant ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by bluefoxlucid ( 723572 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @12:27PM (#59362376) Homepage Journal

      Now that's interesting. Contaminated with what?

      This sounds like finally something valid to throw at Juul--everything up to this point is wargarble--but...contaminated with what? From what you say here, it sounds like a disgruntled employee.

      a Juul spokesperson called Breja’s claims “baseless” and said he was terminated “because he failed to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed in his role. The allegations concerning safety issues with Juul products are equally meritless, and we already investigated the underlying manufacturing issue and determined the product met all applicable specifications. The company will vigorously defend this lawsuit.”

      Here Juul is claiming that they said they investigated a manufacturing issue and determined the product met all specifications. Commonly, a product can contain so much ppm of some various things (like formaldehyde), above which it is considered tainted. Juul's assertion here is essentially that some component of concern had elevated concentration, and that their investigation determined the concentration was not elevated above the level of concern--i.e. they discovered a deviation within spec and corrected for it before it became a deviation out-of-spec.

      They could of course be lying. At face value, their explanation is valid, so long as they can back it up.

      As to expiration dates...for what? Does this stuff actually get old? I'm not worried about low-quality product; I'm worried about dangerous product. Ignore that noise and focus on whether Juul created a public health hazard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kbahey ( 102895 )

        ... it sounds like a disgruntled employee.

        That is what it sounded like to me. Now, whether his claim has merit or just baseless, remains to be seen.

        We may never know. If the company settles with him for some money, everything goes away ...

      • It's a pretty reliable bullshit indicator. If someone fails to provide relevant information that should be readily available, the story is probably crap.

        This seems like a frivolous lawsuit by a disgruntled employee timed to take advantage of the recent panic over contaminated vape cartridges. Claiming contamination without specifying the contaminant disqualifies this as news.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

        Here Juul is claiming that they said they investigated a manufacturing issue and determined the product met all specifications. Commonly, a product can contain so much ppm of some various things (like formaldehyde), above which it is considered tainted. Juul's assertion here is essentially that some component of concern had elevated concentration, and that their investigation determined the concentration was not elevated above the level of concern--i.e. they discovered a deviation within spec and corrected

      • As to expiration dates...for what? Does this stuff actually get old?

        I wonder about this too now. I have some e-juice I bought that I really didn't care for, but instead of throwing it away I've just stockpiled it for some reason - in case I'm ever desperate I guess.

        I traded in my cigarette habit for a whole bunch of unknowns and all the paraphernalia that comes with vaping. For the past few years I've just been satisfied with the idea of not smoking and a cheaper way to get my fix, but I should probably just quit the whole thing altogether.

        This is what I didn't learn when

    • If you are, like me, curious as to what the contaminant is, the lawsuit does not say which substance it is

      FWIW, from the article the lawsuit isn't about the contamination. It's about a former SVP being fired, and he's claiming it's retaliation for when he raised concerns about contaminated pods and out-of-date pods being sold to unsuspecting consumers.

      Yaz

  • Disruptive Second Dotcom Bubble hubris (Score:3)

    by ErichTheRed ( 39327 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @12:10PM (#59362318)

    It's funny because Juul isn't really a "tech company" like all the other disruptive AIMLBlockchainCloudAppSubscription startups out there...but if that CEO statement is true, they sure sound like they're reading out of the same playbook.

    You would think they would care about the quality of their product since they were well on their way to having it, if not endorsed, tolerated as a safer alternative to smoking and a way to get people to quit. Granted that most of the problems have been due to unofficial THC-infused products, but when you make the same stuff you get lumped in with all the others.

    All these CEOs and founders drunk on hubris and billions in valuation are on a completely different planet compared to the rest of us. I guess we'll see what happens...WeWork and Theranos are some good examples of what can happen. (I still can't believe Adam Neumann was able to negotiate a monster payout to disappear, plus was able to convince banks to personally loan him $5 billion, yet normal people who miss a few payments can't get $40K car loans against an asset they can repossess.)

  • Tobacco industry lives and breathes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @12:28PM (#59362380)

    "Half our customers are drunk and vaping like mo-fos, who the fuck is going to notice the quality of our pods."

    At least he's honest.

    • "Half our customers are drunk and vaping like mo-fos, who the fuck is going to notice the quality of our pods."

      At least he's honest.

      Yea, he may be honest, but those customers are now going to have their way with them in civil court. You DON'T say stuff like this where others can hear and quote you. Attorneys love to have quotes like this because 2/3rds of the settlement will set them for life..

      But, I guess he's a customer... A stupid guy, drunk and vaping who knows what saying stupid things.. Hopefully they will dump this guy onto the unemployment lines quickly, he's not management material.

      • Settlement for what, exactly? You'd have to somehow prove you were harmed.

        • Settlement for what, exactly? You'd have to somehow prove you were harmed.

          In case you haven't heard.. Vaping has killed and maimed a few folks in recent history. It seems that the vaping fluid damages your lungs (surprise) when you inhale it. It also has been alleged that it contributes to nicotine addiction and has exposed many to dangerous levels of other semi-toxic substances. There is PLEANTY of things to sue them for... In this case, I'm sure a clever attorney can come up with some argument for monitory damages and get a long list of clients combined into a sizeable clas

          • Complete bullshit. Vaping THC and homemade vaping fluid has done that, has nothing to do with Juul. You are full of shit.

    • hopefully that becomes a thing. Drunk,vaping, Mo-Fo. #DVMF

    • This actually reminds me of another famous statement by another famous company ... Coke’s lawyers had made a remarkable argument: “At oral argument defendants suggested that no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”

  • Contaminated... with what? (Score:3)

    by DatbeDank ( 4580343 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @01:11PM (#59362620)

    Did you know that food is "contaminated" with an acceptable amount of cow poo, rat droppings, and other disgusting stuff?
    Typical of Buzzfeed, TFA doesn't even bother to tell us what the contamination is.

    Obviously, no one is dead and like typical pearl clutchers, they're looking for an excuse to kill an otherwise much healthier alternative to cigarette smoking.

    Baseless indeed.

    • Obviously, no one is dead

      From the article:

      A nationwide lung injury outbreak, now standing at 1,604 cases and 34 deaths, is being investigated by public health agencies

      Last I checked, 34 is bigger than "no one".

      Ands FWIW, this isn't a lawsuit over contamination. It's a lawsuit from a former SVP who claims he was let go in retaliation for bringing up concerns about known contaminated products. It doesn't matter what the contamination may have been for the case -- the only question of importance to the courts is whether or not he was fired because he brought up these concerns.

      Yaz

  • Did Juul violate FDA regulations, or is the real scandal simply that there is no credible and sufficient government and regulatory oversight of this industry to define and enforce standards of safety? Nobody cognizant of history reasonably expects any industry to adequately regulate itself in the best enlightened interest of the public when there's a powerful profit motive at stake. That's a big part of why non-corrupt and effective regulatory governance of industry is essential and indispensable to the pro
    • Industries usually self regulate (like food), and their lobbyists write the rules with the legislature; some vaping companies have already sponsored various safety studies to get a competitive advantage when the regulations come on down.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Chromal ( 56550 )
        Business "self-regulation" is a bad joke if the publication of food safety infractions of local eateries by the county health inspector in the local paper are any indication. We might as well outsource public safety to unicorns as place our faith in business to suitably and adequately act as their own regulatory agency on the public's sole behalf. I don't care about sponsorships, I care about a strong regulatory framework to prevent toxic contamination of products marketed and sold for human consumption. Th

  • Just like Tim Cook (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lije Baley ( 88936 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @02:00PM (#59362838)

    "Half our customers are drunk and texting like mo-fos, who the fuck is going to notice if we remove the headphone jack and make them buy disposable earbuds."

  • to stop sniffing glue.

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