US antitrust authority FTC, filed a lawsuit against Altria Group Inc. and JUUL Labs Inc. for violating competition law by engaging in several agreements and disrupting competition. These agreements also include the acquisition of 35% of JUUL's shares by Altria.
According to the claims of FTC; during the competition era, Altria and JUUL were in intense competition and Altria also took advantage of having the leading tobacco brands in this period. Although early competition resulted in Altria’s MarkTen e-cigarette becoming the second most popular brand by market share, JUUL vaulted industry leaders Altria and Reynolds and became the leading e-cigarette company in the country, by late 2018.
Weeks after Altria declared its intention to lessen its e-cigarette business, Altria and JUUL announced an agreement that makes Altria JUUL’s largest shareholder and allowed Altria to appoint an observer and three members to JUUL’s Board of Directors. The FTC has determined that, in return, Altria will not compete with JUUL for six years and JUUL has received over $ 12 billion.
FTC has filed a lawsuit against this transaction with the following claims;
(FTC – 01.04.2020)
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