FDA Clears Juul2 With Optional Age-Verification App, After Company Paid $3 Billion in Teen-Vaping Settlements

The FDA authorized Juul Labs on Friday, August 28, 2026, to sell an updated version of its e-cigarette for the first time since the original device launched more than a decade ago, according to the Associated Press.

The new device, branded Juul2, comes with tobacco- and menthol-flavored pods and an optional age-verification system. Users can require an online app to unlock the device before it works. According to CBS News, the 21-and-up app pairs with the device and gives adult users information on battery life, pod levels, and even device location, plus the ability to lock a paired device to keep other people from using it.

Ground News reported the FDA determined the JUUL2 System is "appropriate for the protection of public health," a legal standard the agency applies after weighing benefits to adult smokers against risks to teens and non-users. The agency said it reviewed tens of thousands of pages of scientific evidence before making that call.

Juul has been through significant upheaval. The AP reports the company laid off hundreds of employees and paid roughly $3 billion to settle government and private lawsuits tied to the teen vaping epidemic it helped create with fruit and candy flavors it pulled from shelves back in 2019. Those flavors, including mango, mint and creme, drove most of Juul's sales but hooked a generation of teenagers, according to CBS News and MedPage Today.

Why the age-gating feature matters

Parents who worry this is just another vape company chasing profit have a fair point to raise. Juul's own history is the reason anyone is skeptical in the first place. The company built an empire on flavors that appealed to kids, got caught, and is now trying to rebuild trust with adult smokers instead.

The optional age-verification app is a genuinely different approach than the industry's usual answer to underage use, which has mostly been age-checks at the cash register that anyone can dodge with a fake ID or an older sibling's help. A device-level lock tied to a verified adult account is a technical solution parents can actually use, not a promise regulators have to take on faith.

It's optional, not mandatory, which will bother critics who wanted the FDA to require it outright. The FDA's own framing, cited by CBS News, is blunt about the tradeoffs: the agency "considers the risks and benefits to the U.S. population as a whole, including the benefits to adults who currently use tobacco products and switch to a potentially lower-risk product, as well as the risks posed to youth and non-users of tobacco products." This is a population-level calculation, not a guarantee for any individual teenager.

The smoking-cessation numbers

Juul submitted company studies to the FDA showing that between 20% and 50% of smokers who used its products quit smoking entirely after six weeks, with results varying by flavor and nicotine strength, according to MedPage Today and STAT News. Ground News noted more than 2 million adults have already switched using the original Juul system.

Regulators are not endorsing vaping through this authorization. The FDA said plainly that non-smokers should not start using Juul or any e-cigarette. But for adults already smoking combustible cigarettes, a product that gets them off the deadlier habit is a public health win, according to the agency's own reasoning.

The bigger shift under Trump

This authorization fits a pattern. In May 2026, the FDA approved the first fruit-flavored e-cigarettes for adult smokers, a major reversal that came after months of lobbying from the vaping industry directed at President Trump, according to the AP. Juul CEO K.C. Crosthwaite told reporters Friday the company now plans to seek authorization for a broader flavor lineup beyond tobacco and menthol aimed at adult nicotine users, and is also pursuing filings for 5% nicotine products, according to Ground News.

Whether that flavor expansion repeats the mistakes of a decade ago remains uncertain. Juul is no longer the top-selling e-cigarette brand in America. Vuse, made by Reynolds American, holds that spot now, per the AP. Teen vaping overall has dropped according to federal figures, but the kids who still vape have mostly moved to unauthorized, Chinese-made disposable vapes in fruit and candy flavors that the FDA never approved and can't easily police.

The FDA can put age-gates on legal products sold by companies like Juul that have already been burned once. It has far less control over the flood of illegal disposables coming from overseas that teenagers are actually using. Any parent cheering the Juul2's lock feature should know it does nothing about the products actually driving underage vaping today.